Microsoft Market Value Reaches $450 Billion

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 4:36AM EST · Published Aug 15, 8:55AM EDT

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Microsoft Market Value Reaches $450 Billion — © Thinkstock

After what seemed like an eternity, Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) market cap has reached the all-time highs set just before the Nasdaq bubble burst in late 1999, reaching $450 billion. Former CEO Steve Ballmer took the rap for much of the stock trouble over that time. In reality, for the most part, Microsoft fell and rose with the Nasdaq.

The primary difference to the business model direction of the company in the past two years is its success with the cloud. And it is not even in first place in that business, trailing at least Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

However, it is safe to say that both in revenue and in image, Windows-based personal computers are no longer the face of the company.

As Microsoft posted its most recent earnings, for the period that ended June 30, CEO Satya Nadella said:

This past year was pivotal in both our own transformation and in partnering with our customers who are navigating their own digital transformations. The Microsoft Cloud is seeing significant customer momentum and we’re well positioned to reach new opportunities in the year ahead.

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Microsoft will need to drive this business hard because it has become crowded with competition from every large tech company in the world. As the drive for market share increases, margins may not. However, its office and business customer bases are so huge, Microsoft has a built-in advantage.

Nadella is off to a good start as he reinvents the company. At the same time, the Nasdaq continues to march relentlessly higher, as it did from 1999 to 2016. What will it look like checking back in another 17 years? Now at $58, Microsoft has hit a summit again.

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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.