With a market capitalization of more than $374 billion as of Wednesday’s close, Apple is worth far more than Google, which has a market cap that now sits at $290 billion. As The Wall Street Journal’s MoneyBeat blog points out, however, Google has surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable tech company when using a less conventional measure. “The market caps of both companies are swelled by their huge bank accounts,” MoneyBeat’s Rolfe Winkler wrote. “Strip out Apple’s $145 billion of net cash as of March, and Google’s $45 billion. This leaves an enterprise value of $233 billion for Apple, but $241 billion for Google, reflecting the underlying value of the companies’ actual operations.” Winkler uses a good analogy to help illustrate the principle: “If you bought a house for $378,000, but there was $145,000 of cash lying on the living room floor, all you really paid was a net $233,000.”
Google passes Apple, becomes world’s most valuable tech company by one measure
Updated Jun 26th, 2013 6:05PM EDT
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Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.
His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.
