Apple Projected To Become the Most Valuable Company in History

Apple went public on December 12 in 1980. Microsoft on the other hand, took its IPO to market on March 13 just over five years later in 1986. But after being nearly driven completely out of business by Microsoft and then bailed out for the tune of $150 million by Microsoft, Apple is now well on its course of becoming the most valuable company in the history of, well, companies — inflation considered. Bigger than IBM, bigger than Wal-Mart, and even bigger than global oil giant Exxon. How valuable? Well, the total value of Apple’s currently traded stock has just cleared $623 billion — nearly $3 billion (yes, with a ‘b’) more than what Microsoft was worth in its own finest hour during the dotcom boom of the 1990s. Ironically, this height was also right around the time that Apple was sputtering, and in risk of going completely under. Even after a mediocre year (by Apple’s modern standards), Apple is still showing little sign of abated growth — but how big is too big? Big numbers aside, Apple still has a bit of work to do to surpass IBM’s vaulted $1.3 trillion dollar valuation — which accounts for inflation — achieved back in 1967.