Apple Tops Brand Value List, IBM Loses Ground

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 27, 6:27AM EDT

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) tops every brand value list. The carefully followed annual BrandZ Top 100 Valuable Global Brands of 2015 is no exception. While most of the brands on this list gained value over 2014, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was a significant exception, demonstrating its falling influence in the tech world, as well as the sell-off of its stock and troubling trends with its revenue.

Apple’s brand value rose 67% to $245 billion. Such a large advance is particularly impressive, given Apple’s already massive brand value. iPhone sales, which have reached 60 million a quarter and double-digit growth, were up 27% in the most recently reported quarter to $58 billion and have been the engine of Apple’s improvement, despite weak sales of the iPad. Apple optimists hope the new Apple Watch will make up for the iPad sales problem. Also, Apple was an alternative choice to the 24/7 Wall St. 10 Stocks to Own for the Next Decade.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was well behind Apple on the list, with a brand value of $174 billion, up only 8%. Google has had problems with antitrust authorities in Europe, and its growth has slowed recently. Outsiders also worry that the company continues to rely on advertising and no other line of business.

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A resurgent Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), ranks third on the list, with a brand value of $116 billion, up 28%. Recent earnings improvement, a move into the cloud and continued dominance with Windows-related products have pushed prospects for the software company higher.

IBM ranks fourth on the list and is the only brand with sharp erosion from last year, down 13% to $84 billion. The company has posted falling revenue, and its move into cloud computing has been poorly managed. Its share price continues to hover near a multiyear low. Investors have mostly given up on its future prospects. Among the other notable losers, the value of Samsung dropped 17% to $22 billion. It has been thrashed by Apple in the smartphone business, in which it made so much progress two years ago. The value of the Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) brand dropped by 17% to $11 billion, as the social media company tries to find a way to make money.

The winner by far in valuation improvement was Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), with a 99% improvement from last year that took its value to $71 billion.

The strength of large Chinese brands showed in the value of Tencent, which was higher by 43% to $77 billion, as the messaging company continues to dominate its section in the People’s Republic. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ: BABA) was not on the list last year. It posted a brand valuation of $66 billion. The value of China search engine Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) rose 43% to $76 billion. It has effectively blocked Google out of the world’s largest Internet market and holds better than 80% of that market in China.

The new list is as much a tragedy for IBM as it is a triumph for Apple.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.