Google Passes Apple – And Watch out for Amazon

The operating value of the company equals the value of the company’s debt plus equity minuses the amount of cash and investments on its balance sheet.  As of this morning, the latest data show that the combined value of Apple’s equity and debt was $616 billion.  Subtracting Apple’s $205 billion cash hoard gives an operating value of $406 billion.  In comparison, the value of Google’s equity and debt comes to $502 billion.  Subtracting Google’s cash of $73 billion gives an operating value of $428 billion – more than $20 billion greater than Apple’s. Because cash represents past success and operations anticipated future success, from the standpoint of their tech business Google has already passed Apple and Amazon is getting close.