What I'm immediately thinking is 'does China have a stock market'?

Jon

Comparing Apple to Facebook, not really a very good comparison, in my opinion.

Mark

Erm.... not quite.

$621 billion in 2000 is roughly equivalent to $825 billion today, adjusted for inflation.

History is a pretty big thing, and that comparison between MS and Apple seems a little narrow. Wall Street market cap with inflation uncompensated is all very well, but some companies have existed with assets that massively exceed Apple's shareholder value (which incorporates all assets and anticipated future revenues).

Apple gets nowhere near the value of the East India Company, or the Dutch East India Company, the South Sea Company.... Those would all be well over a trillion in modern dollars. The same may well apply to the Medici banking empire and Crassus' fire brigade. Plus there are state owned oil companies that (depending on how big their reserves actually are) are vastly more valuable than Exxon right now, making them likely to be more so than Apple too.

On the plus side though, Apple has done less morally dubious stuff than any of those historical guys, who were much worse than them in key areas such as slavery, opium running, assassination, invading countries and so on. So really this is a big win for corporate social responsibility. Hurrah for Apple and its very half-hearted commitment to slavery.

Justification please?

So it's not what the company is actually worth but what the stock market thinks it's worth. It's like a house - it's "worth" £x according to an estate agent but everyone knows it's really worth less.

Very true but at least in this case the comparison with MS is like with like - they're comparing the stock market's valuation of MS then to the same of Apple now. Both are equally valid (or not valid, depending on your opinion).

You could say that, but if you stop and think about it you will notice that the same can be said of all things of any value, whatever method is used to establish it. Including gold, diamonds, Dollars, Bollinger, an hour with a dentist (or a hooker), or anything else except a mother's love. So treasure your dear old ma as she's the only thing in your life the value of which is not determined by the liquidity of markets and the confidence of investors.