Financial Post | April 8, 2011 | Jameson Berkow
HTC Corp., the Taiwanese smartphone maker branded as being quietly brilliant, quietly surpassed the market capitalization of Finnish phone giant Nokia Corp. this week.
Valued at approximately US$33.8-billion as of market close on Wednesday, that figureexceeded the US$33.4-billion capitalization of Nokia at the time, making HTC the third-largest phone maker on Earth behind only Samsung Electronics Corp. and Apple Inc.. Although HTC’s market cap has dipped slightly below that of Nokia since, it will probably not remain at that level for long.
After all, the two companies have been moving in utterly opposing directions for years.
Virtually unknown to the investment world just three years ago, HTC became the first beneficiary of Google Inc.’s open source Android software. Launching the first Android-powered smartphone — the HTC Dream — in October 2008, HTC would enjoy exclusivity with Android for 18 highly lucrative months.
The value of its shares have tripled since late 2007 as the company has become a household name among technology investors. Driven largely by the success of its latest Android device — the ThunderBolt — HTC posted record quarterly profit on Friday.
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