Apple has officially been dethroned as the world's most valuable company.

After flirting with reclaiming the title all week, Microsoft (MSFT) passed Apple on Friday and ended the day as the most valuable company, with a market cap of $851 billion.

Both companies remain well below the $1 trillion milestone that Apple and Amazon hit earlier this year.

Apple (APPL) first passed Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company in 2010, as its consumer hardware business thrived while Microsoft's floundered. Now, Microsoft is thriving in large part by focusing not on consumers, but enterprise customers.

Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has made a years-long bet on cloud computing. This has positioned Microsoft as one of the two dominant players — along with Amazon (AMZN) — in a fast growing market, and propelled the company to its first $100 billion sales year.

Apple, meanwhile, has seen its stock plunge amid concerns about sagging demand for the new lineup of pricey iPhones and its decision to stop disclosing unit sales for smartphones — not to mention a report earlier this week that President Donald Trump is open to placing tariffs on the iPhone.

CNN

BDST: 1638 HRS, DEC 3, 2018
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