The Apple logo is now worth $39.3 billion according to Brand Finance
30 Top U.S. Brands. Click to enlarge. Source: Brand Finance
Microsoft (MSFT) is down 9% to $39 billion. Google (GOOG) is up 9% to nearly $48.3 billion. But Apple (AAPL) is way up -- 33% -- to overtake, for the first time, Microsoft, IBM (IBM), Wal-Mart (WMT) and General Electric (GE).
Those are the highlights of the interim brand value report issued last week by Brand Finance, a London-based consulting company that specializes in putting a dollar value what you might think is a rather intangible marketing concept.
Overall, the value of the world's top 100 brands have fallen 2.4% since January, according to Brand Finance, dragged down by the plummeting reputations of financial institutions like Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC).
As if to prove there's some wiggle room in these valuations, a competing firm, BrandZ, put the value of the Apple brand at $153.3 billion in May, ahead of Google. (See How Apple became the world's most valuable brand.)
BrandZ bases its ratings, in part, on a survey of 2 million consumers. Brand Finance uses a more straightforward discounted cash flow technique to arrive at a net present value of a company's trademark and associated intellectual property.
Companies that want to make sense of all their bits and bytes are hiring so-called data scientists - if they can find any.
FORTUNE -- The unemployment rate in the U.S. continues to be abysmal (9.1% in July), but the tech world has spawned a new kind of highly skilled, nerdy-cool job that companies are scrambling to fill: data scientist.
A data scientist helps companies make sense of the massive streams of MORE
Michal Lev-Ram, writer - Sep 6, 2011 5:00 AM ET
Apple looks like a pretty big fish in the video on demand business -- if you ignore Netflix
Data: iSuppli. Chart: PED
If all you saw was the pie chart at right, produced from data issued Monday by iSuppli, you might think that Apple (AAPL) had succeeded in doing to digital video what it did to digital music.
According to iSuppli, now a unit of IHS (IHS), iTunes' share of U.S. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 23, 2011 1:43 PM ET
One of Apple's most serious challenges in the digital music market is giving up
"After eight years in business, the Walmart Music Downloads Store located at mp3.walmart.com will close on August 28, 2011. All content in the Store will be disabled and no longer available for download from the store."
So begins the certified letter sent to Walmart's (WMT) distribution and licensing partners and posted Tuesday by Digital Music News. The death MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 10, 2011 7:18 AM ET
By Edward Humes, contributor
In this excerpt from Force of Nature, Edward Humes describes how Wal-Mart changed the way environmentalists looked at the company. Editor's Note: America's biggest company is trying to grow in size but shrink its environmental footprint. Since 2004, Wal-Mart has been tackling the paradoxical task of becoming the prototype for sustainable capitalism. In the new book Force of Nature, Edward Humes chronicles the company's recent green-shift in values. Here, he MORE May 17, 2011 12:22 PM ET
Moves up from 59th place in 2010 based on boffo sales growth and return on investment
Source: Barron's
In what Barron's describes as "a tip of the hat" to the corporations that generated the most revenue growth and cash returns in recent years, the magazine moved Apple (AAPL) up 55 spots in its 13th annual ranking of America's 500 largest companies that aren't currently in bankruptcy.
"While such operating success might not MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 7, 2011 12:31 PM ET
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Twitter, the subject of Fortune's cover story this month, is reportedly in advanced talks to buy third-party application TweetDeck for around $50 million. The potential acquisition comes at a time when the social network is trying to go mainstream. (Wall Street Journal) Wal-Mart paid over $300 million to buy MORE JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Apr 19, 2011 9:55 AM ET
A guide for shoppers who can't wait for the lines to subside
Image: Apple Inc.
As you may have heard, Apple's (AAPL) new and improved iPad 2 goes on sale in the U.S. Friday at 5 p.m. local time.
Unlike the first model, which was initially available only through Apple's retail stores and selected Best Buy outlets, buyers this year have choices -- more than 10,000 of them, each with their MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 8, 2011 7:35 AM ET
Despite fierce competition, iTunes commanded a 64% share of the (legal) market in 2010
Click to enlarge. Source: IHS Screen Digest
The online movie market may be Apple's (AAPL) to lose, but it hasn't lost it yet.
According to an IHS Screen Digest report issued Monday by iSuppli, the iTunes Store's share of the U.S. market for downloaded movies (see below re streaming) fell nearly 10 points last year, from 74.4% in MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 7, 2011 3:08 PM ET
A long time coming, the combined efforts of major players and successful startups have irrevocably changed the way consumers shop.
In the tech world, 2010 will be remembered for a few newsworthy events. The iPad launched last spring and took tablets mainstream. In August, sales of Android devices trumped iPhone sales for the first time. And just several weeks ago, the industry eagerly witnessed Google's (GOOG) jaw-dropping (and rejected) bid for Groupon.
Behind MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Dec 20, 2010 5:00 AM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Citigroup Inc | 32.36 | -1.00 | -3.00% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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