Google passes Apple, becomes world’s most valuable tech company by one measure

With a market capitalization of more than $374 billion as of Wednesday’s close, Apple is worth far more than Google, which has a market cap that now sits at $290 billion. As The Wall Street Journal’s MoneyBeat blog points out, however, Google has surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable tech company when using a less conventional measure. “The market caps of both companies are swelled by their huge bank accounts,” MoneyBeat’s Rolfe Winkler wrote. “Strip out Apple’s $145 billion of net cash as of March, and Google’s $45 billion. This leaves an enterprise value of $233 billion for Apple, but $241 billion for Google, reflecting the underlying value of the companies’ actual operations.” Winkler uses a good analogy to help illustrate the principle: “If you bought a house for $378,000, but there was $145,000 of cash lying on the living room floor, all you really paid was a net $233,000.”

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This article was originally published on BGR.com