In my opinion, the stock market is a lot like tarot reading, where a shuffling of vague data points results in even vaguer but loosely related predictions, but for whatever reason, the current industry climate has been the perfect nesting bed for Microsoft’s stock and what investors are predicting is its future value.
Earlier this week, Microsoft’s market value shot pass two of its staunchest rivals in Amazon (AWS) and Google (everything else), putting it in the runner-up position as the Most Valuable US company, just behind Apple’s juggernaut evaluation.
The news comes just two months after it had been reported that Microsoft and Amazon were jostling for that coveted second position among the most valuable companies in the US.
According to the numbers, Microsoft’s market value has been placed at $728 billion, surpassing Amazon’s $709 billion, inching out $722 billion and still a distant second to Apple’s $890 billion.
Part of Microsoft’s recent surge comes at stock deflations that have befallen tech companies whose dealings in data collection cross their business models in rather ambiguous ways which are leading to mounting public backlash.
Over the last month, companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon have been facing mounting legal battles in courtrooms around the world which are wreaking havoc on their stock prices as each company has either suffered stagnation or decline in the market due to the scrutinization of their business practices.
Fortunately, for Microsoft, the company has spent the latter part of three decades earning goodwill and trust regarding the collection and storage of sensitive data via its operating system Windows, its productivity software in Office, and using both those commodities to grow its presence in the cloud.
As Microsoft continues to seemingly shed its more consumer-facing endeavors and adheres to a further retrenchment into an enterprise-focused business the company should undoubtedly be rewarded with a steadily increasing market value as its competitors dance amongst the double edge sword of consumer adoption and individual privacy that’s as unpredictable as forecast during a tornado season.
