The trilliondollar company
AFTER a hectic week in trading, iPhone manufacturer Apple yesterday became the world’s first $US1 trillion dollar company after shares closed above the threshold needed to reach the benchmark.
Apple shares closed at $US207.39 ($NZ307.80), above the $US207.34 required threshold.
The company reported a better than expected third quarter result on Tuesday. Since then, shares rose 9%.
During the session, Apple’s stock market value reached as much as $US1.006 trillion.
Started in the garage of cofounder Steve Jobs in 1976, Apple has pushed its revenue beyond the economic outputs of Portugal, New Zealand and other countries. Along the way, it has changed how consumers connect with one another and how businesses conduct daily commerce.
Apple’s stock market value is greater than the combined capitalisation of Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble and AT&T. It now accounts for 4% of the S&P 500.
The Silicon Valley stalwart’s stock has surged more than 50,000% since its 1980 initial public offering, dwarfing the S&P 500’s approximately 2000% increase during the same almost four decades.
One of three founders, Mr Jobs was driven out of Apple in the mid1980s, only to return a decade later and rescue the computer company from near bankruptcy.
He launched the iPhone in 2007, dropping ‘‘Computer’’ from Apple’s name and supercharging the cellphone industry, catching Microsoft Corp, Intel Corp, Samsung Electronics and Nokia off guard. Apple was then on a
path to overtake Exxon Mobil in 2011 as the largest US company by market value.
During that time, Apple evolved from selling Mac personal computers to becoming an architect of the mobile revolution with a cultlike following.
Mr Jobs, who died in 2011, was succeeded as chief executive by Tim Cook, who has doubled the company’s profits but struggled to develop a new product to repeat the societyaltering success of the iPhone, whose sales have tapered off in recent years.
One of five US companies since the 1980s to take a turn as Wall Street’s largest company by market capitalisation, Apple could lose its lead to the likes of Alphabet Inc or Amazon.com Inc if it does not find a major new product or service as global demand for smartphones loses steam.
Amazon.com is the secondlargest listed US company by market value, at about $US880 billion, closely followed by Googleowner Alphabet and Microsoft.
New Zealand Companies Office records show Apple Sales New Zealand reported a profit of $29.7 million in the year ended September 30, 2017. The company paid $10.2 million tax and reported an after tax profit of $19.5 million. Sales in the period were $811 million.