Wow, Microsoft's market cap has gone way up recently. Only $2bn from Google.

[Jas00555]

I remember the headlines now. "Microsoft has lost the future to Google" yada yada. Well, looking at their stock, Microsoft's market cap has gone up a lot to the current $287 billion, which is only $2 billion away from Google. Exciting times.

 

[DoctorSaline]

It's probably because the investors see the potential in unified operating systems. But MS has still to penetrate into mobile market apart from maintaining its PC share. It's a slow, uphill battle but I'm glad the investors don't share the same doom and gloom mentality that most of tech media has reserved for Microsoft.

 

[vlad0]

I remember the headlines now. "Microsoft has lost the future to Google" yada yada. Well, looking at their stock, Microsoft's market cap has gone up a lot to the current $287 billion, which is only $2 billion away from Google. Exciting times.

Google have a very elegant business model built around advertising, and I don't want to sound harsh, but that's pretty much their one big trick.. its their main "cash cow"

Microsoft is a bit more diverse from that perspective, which should help in the long run and investors like that.

Its funny because Google is trying really hard to penetrate the enterprise sector, and Microsoft is trying hard to start selling ads trough their platforms. We will see who can take more market share out of the other's hands quicker.

If Microsoft start loosing to Google/Apple in the corporate world... it will be really bad. But they are very well positioned so hopefully that won't happen.

On the other hand, if they start making enough money from advertising in order to start giving their software away for free/cheap ala Google.. then Mountain View might have a bigger problem.

Either way, exciting times.

I think Microsoft's biggest problem has been loosing talent.. a lot of people have left the company to join their competitors over the past 10 or so years.

 

[Squachy]

MS also acknowledges that the corporate culture was so disjointed within so they are moving to rectify that. It should help eventually speed up progress when everyone is on the same page instead of on separate pages and they'll all get to that page at whatever peace they feel like. Plus they do a ton more stuff than just advertising.

 

[dkediger]

It's probably because the investors see the potential in unified operating systems. But MS has still to penetrate into mobile market apart from maintaining its PC share. It's a slow, uphill battle but I'm glad the investors don't share the same doom and gloom mentality that most of tech media has reserved for Microsoft.

I think the mobile aspect has been built into how institutional and fund investors view them. Nokia acquisition was about protecting the WP turf, but I don't think most viewed it as a long term contributor. Microsoft has also demonstrated a credible mobile "Plan B" with Office on IOS and O365. I just don't think intermediate success or failure in the mobile hardware business moves the needle much in the markets.

 

[Jas00555]

Wow, now there's less than $1 billion between MSFT and GOOG. It would be really cool if they pass them back tomorrow.

 

[Jas00555]

We did it!!! Woohoo! We finally did it! Microsoft passed Google for a brief time today (and by a decent amount). Google has recovered, but we'll have to see how the market handles their declining profits tomorrow.

http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-pass-googles-market-cap-following-goog-earnings-miss/

Lets go have a beer

 

[Jas00555]

Now Microsoft is up by 10 billion.

 

[EasilyTheBest]

I have said for a Long time that the competition between Microsoft and Google has got to be one of the biggest company battles ever.
Its a really interesting situation and like someone said above, either Google will pinch a ton of Microsoft's enterprise business or Microsoft will pinch a ton of Google's advertising business. Its whoever gets there the fastest will cause a whole lot of trouble for the other.
Bing gets alot of criticism but I think its one of the most important parts of Microsoft's business for the future.
Its also very obvious why there's no Google apps on Windows Phones, if Windows Phone gets to 20% one day, I still think Google will hold off the apps.

 

[Jas00555]

I have said for a Long time that the competition between Microsoft and Google has got to be one of the biggest company battles ever.
Its a really interesting situation and like someone said above, either Google will pinch a ton of Microsoft's enterprise business or Microsoft will pinch a ton of Google's advertising business. Its whoever gets there the fastest will cause a whole lot of trouble for the other.
Bing gets alot of criticism but I think its one of the most important parts of Microsoft's business for the future.
Its also very obvious why there's no Google apps on Windows Phones, if Windows Phone gets to 20% one day, I still think Google will hold off the apps.

I would argue that Microsoft just needs to keep the enterprise, but don't necessarily have to worry about advertising. One of the reasons that Google's profits have started to decline YoY is because the money per ad have gone down dramatically while Google hasn't been able to get new customers fast enough to offset the decline. Unless Google is able to monetize mobile (and Facebook is already crushing them in that arena), then they'll continue to see YoY declines, unless they start monetizing their other businesses, which would give Microsoft a huge advantage.

 

[smoledman]

Google is a one-trick pony - 97% of profits from advertising.

MS has many billion dollar businesses. However only 2 $10 billion businesses - Windows & Office. Azure is on it's way but we're looking at 2017.

In the end MS will win because of the diversity in product portfolio. Also I think they will double-down on Surface and come out with an amazing Surface Mini and Surface Pro 4 in 2015.

 

[Cleavitt76]

I have said for a Long time that the competition between Microsoft and Google has got to be one of the biggest company battles ever.
Its a really interesting situation and like someone said above, either Google will pinch a ton of Microsoft's enterprise business or Microsoft will pinch a ton of Google's advertising business. Its whoever gets there the fastest will cause a whole lot of trouble for the other.
Bing gets alot of criticism but I think its one of the most important parts of Microsoft's business for the future.
Its also very obvious why there's no Google apps on Windows Phones, if Windows Phone gets to 20% one day, I still think Google will hold off the apps.

The competition between MS and Google is fierce where it overlaps, but I don't think they overlap very much to be honest. Other than mobile devices and some consumer services they have little else in common. Of course mobile and services is mostly what Google is know for, but MS has tons of other more valuable products.

Google's advertising strategy is useless (actually it's a serious handicap) in the enterprise market. Enterprise customers don't want their company data being parsed by Google's advertising engine. That is really a moot point though, because Google really doesn't have any products or services that are useful to the enterprise market anyway (with or without data collection). I think Google will continue to be a big player in the consumer market for a long time, but they have no realistic way to even make a dent in Microsoft's enterprise market share. The competition in the enterprise market comes from many other companies, but Google (and Apple) wouldn't even appear in a top 100 list.

Also, while MS is involved in advertising, it's not a market that they need to dominate. Their products and services mostly stand on their own without the need for advertising. Google's products and services are mostly used because they are cheap/free and that strategy requires subsidizing from advertising.