International Business Machines has just surpassed its very old and traditional rival, Microsoft Corp., in the evaluation of market value of both companies. Microsoft Corp. had kept its considerable dominance over IBM since it first surpassed over the market price of IBM in April 1996. This was a very eye opening unfolding of the time, as this swipe in the market value of the world's two most popular technology companies was not foreseen and happened very abruptly. IBM was ruling the entire computer industry for decades till it hired Microsoft, a very small company than, for providing it with an operating system for its launch of a new line of PC’s in early 1980s.
Image via CrunchBaseBill Gates was pioneering this revolution as his company undoubtedly dominated whole of the computer industry, exercising his vision which stated; “software is much more valuable and powerful than hardware.” This envisioned Microsoft Corp. as it continued much profitable success leading to a better market value compared to IBM; by the end of 1999, the fortunes had fluctuated to such extend that that Microsoft's market value was three folds more than that of IBM. The rise of Seattle-based Microsoft led many market analysts to believe that IBM is no more than an old-fashioned, immobile giant which failed to keep the pace in the computing revolution.
However, right after such contrast, since 2000, history repeated itself and this time in an up-side down manner, as the stock of Microsoft Corp. halted their steep rise. Many investors doubted its aptitude for moving any further than the already introduced advancements, like Windows operating system and Office suite of software. Whereas, filling in the spaces, other relatively younger rivals, such as Google Inc and Facebook, took over its place and had an almost similar boosting increase in value.
Meanwhile, IBM completely revamped itself into becoming an honored specialist in business software, servers and consulting, as it also moved on from its PC business on the road. If an investor had made a choice of investing, let’s say $100,000 a decade back, today his investment will be around $143,000 in IBM stock and almost $69,000 in Microsoft stock.
Apple Inc. crossed over Microsoft’s market value last year, as it went straight ahead to become the world's biggest tech company in the history of times. The current records of Reuters state that Apple's dominance rests at $308.3 billion, as IBM merely took the lead with $203.5 billion leaving Microsoft at $201.1 billion.
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