Apple Inc. Ripens; Facebook Falls Flat
August 21, 2012
The stock price of Apple Inc., maker of the iMac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod, climbed to $664.74 a share on the NASDAQ Global Select Market yesterday, making it the world’s most valuable company–ever. Apple’s total valuation hit $622.5 billion, the highest of any corporation in history.
The Silicon Valley-based company is expected to release a new version of its iPhone this fall and possibly a smaller, more affordable version of the iPad tablet. Although Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, died in October 2011, investor confidence in the company has remained high under its new chief executive officer, Tim Cook.
Other technology companies fared less well on yesterday’s market. Shares of the social networking site Facebook sank to $18.75 on NASDAQ, compared with the $38-a-share opening value at its IOP (initial public offering) in May. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with Harvard University classmates in February 2004. In June 2012, Facebook had more than 955 million active users worldwide. However, many investors became wary of the website’s ability to generate sufficient amounts of advertising income, depressing the value of the stock. Some market analysts suggest that the stock was simply wildly overvalued to begin with.
Additional World Book articles:
- iGenius: Steve Jobs 1955-2011 (a special report)
- Computers 2007 (a Back in Time article)
- Telecommunications 2007 (a Back in Time article)
- Computers 2010 (a Back in Time article)
- Computers 2011 (a Back in Time article)