Tuesday, March 19

Microsoft Surpasses Amazon to Take the Spot of Second Most Valuable US Company

The software giant Microsoft has reportedly reacquired its position as the second most valuable US company on Friday. This happened after Amazon showed a disappointing quarterly report as the company wiped $65 billion off the online retailer’s market capitalization.

The company that tops the list is Apple with over $1 trillion after crossing that threshold in September. Microsoft’s market capitalization was Wall Street’s highest in late 1998 through early 2000 before the dot-com bubble burst.

The shares of Amazon reduced 7%, the most in nearly three years after its holiday season sales outlook missed targets. Microsoft fell a more modest 2% in a broad technology sell-off that was also driven by a weaker-than-expected report from Google-parent Alphabet, leaving the Nasdaq down 2.1% at midday.

The shares of the company remained high nearly 4% from Wednesday when the company beat quarterly profit expectations, driven by its cloud computing business that competes with Amazon’s.

Amazon was worth $805 billion on Friday, after falling below Microsoft’s in extended trade on Thursday. The drop was equivalent to the combined values of Target and Corning.