A milestone for financial markets: at the close of trading in New York on Monday, Google (GOOG) was the world’s second-largest technology company based on its market capitalization, temporarily stealing that honor from Microsoft (MSFT).
Both companies are worth just under $250 billion, although Microsoft remains the bigger company by revenue (Microsoft had about $18 billion in revenue last quarter, Google $12 billion). Of course both companies are still behind Apple, which booked $35 billion in revenue last quarter and is currently valued at almost $620 billion. (Market value is determined by multiplying a company’s stock price by the number of shares it has outstanding.)
Google’s rise not only consolidates the ascension of the Internet, it also highlights a new era in which the dominance of the PC industry is threatened by mobile devices and web-based applications. Google’s Android operating system leads sales to end users, accounting for 64.1% of total market share by the end of the second quarter, followed by Apple’s iOS with 18.8%, Symbian with 5.9% and RIM’s BlackBerry with 5.2%. Microsoft’s Windows operating system for mobile devices only accounted for 2.7%.
Google has also stepped into the mobile hardware business with its $ 12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility. Meanwhile, Microsoft has partnered with Nokia, which is building devices that run Microsoft’s Windows mobile operating system.
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