Apple Inc made stock market history yesterday by becoming the first American listed company to be valued at $1 trillion. To put that in perspective, Apple's market cap equals about 38 per cent of India's total GDP in 2017, when it became the world's sixth largest economy. Here are five interesting facts about the company's remarkable rise.
1. Apple's shares started spiking after the company released its latest quarterly figures on Tuesday. CEO Tim Cook called it the company's "best June quarter ever, and our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth". And the market celebrated by spurring on the stock to $207.39 (at Thursday's close) - a jump of 9 per cent in three days - crossing the lofty m-cap milestone in the bargain. Not bad at all for a company that Steve Jobs started out of his parent's garage, along with Steve Wozniak, 42 years ago.
2. The Apple II, which hit the market in 1977, was the duo's first machine for the masses. This was the year that Apple Inc's revenue reached the $1 million milestone. The computer, incidentally, became so popular that Jobs was worth $100 million by age 25. Then, on December 12, 1980, the company went public at $22 a share and raised $110 million in one of the biggest initial public offerings to date. Two years later, the company scaled the $1 billion revenue peak. Those who climbed aboard the Apple gravy train back then and clung on to their shares through the many dips would have reportedly seen returns to the tune of 40,000 per cent. If you factor in reinvested dividends, too, a mere $100 investment in the company would now be worth $63,000.
3. But then the company stumbled spectacularly - Jobs clashed with colleagues and then CEO John Sculley, Mac sales slowed, Apple's stock price started sinking, and Jobs was eventually forced to resigned. According to Bloomberg, Apple Inc.'s m-cap was a paltry $3 billion when Jobs returned to the struggling company as interim chief in 1996, after it acquired his startup, NeXT. Jobs slashed unprofitable projects, narrowed the company's focus and unleashed a new marketing campaign encouraging users to "Think different", all of which propelled Apple back to profitability in 1998.
4. In August 2011, Apple first bagged the tag of the world's most valued company, briefly overtaking oil giant Exxon Mobil, just a few weeks before Steve Jobs resigned as CEO. A year later, Apple made history again. Around mid-August 2012, its stock took off on the buzz about an impending launch of the iPhone 5, thereby propelling the company's value to $624 billion - the world's highest-ever, back then.
5. Stepping into Jobs too-large shoes would not have been easy but Cook, who was named CEO shortly before Jobs's death, has successfully helped Apple defy gravity. The news agency reports that the company's stock is up fourfold since he became CEO. However, he can't afford to enjoy the $1 trillion victory for long since the likes of Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft are all racing towards this milestone.
With agency inputs
Edited By Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal