On the biased nature of the media: Apple vs. Alphabet in the ‘most valuable company’ race

Mac Daily News ^ | Thursday, February 4, 2016 · 9:28 am

[Swordmaker]

Currently, the market value of Apple Inc. is $534.22 billion. The market value of Alphabet Inc. (Google) is $499.67.

That's a gap of $34.55 billion or, in other words, right around $8 billion more than the current value of Sony Corp.

Let's pause here to let that fact really sink in.

Okay, now after being momentarily eclipsed due to the vagaries of the market, which generated a veritable avalanche of news articles, Apple quickly reassumed the throne as the world's most valuable company.

You'd think this would be big news. Or at least equally as big. Close to as big? Somewhere in the ballpark, at least?

It's not.

Here are the results Google News and Bing News searches for the following terms:

Bing:

• Apple retakes market cap lead -- 272,000 results
• Alphabet takes market cap lead -- 746,000 results
• Google takes market cap lead -- 1,710,000 results

272,000 vs. 2,456,000. Of the total news stories Bing found involving market cap lead for Apple, Alphabet or Google, the number reporting Apple's return to #1 account for 9.97%.

Google:

• Apple retakes market cap lead -- About 1,160 results
• Alphabet takes market cap lead -- About 42,400 results
• Google takes market cap lead -- About 842,000 results

1,160 vs. 884,400. Of the total news stories Google found involving market cap lead for Apple, Alphabet or Google, the number reporting Apple's return to #1 account for 0.13%.

MacDailyNews Take: Yet more proof that the media in general is biased against Apple Inc.

Here's a better measure of how valuable each company really is:

Apple vs. Alphabet revenue (2008-2015) (in billion U.S. dollars)

Revenue comparison of Apple and Google from 2008 to 2015 (in billion U.S. dollars)
Source: Wolfram Alpha

[Swordmaker]

Apple regained the "Most Valuable Market Cap Company in the World" title less than 24 hours after Alphabet/Google wrested it from them to huge almost joyous headlines around the world, and the news is basically crickets. Apple is now out-valuing Google by over $35 Billion after less than a single day with Alphabet/Google at the top of the heap, yet the news media yawns?

It seems that when anal-cysts started looking at the details of the win, there was really no "There" there. Alphabet had reported their huge quarter using non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practices) accounting, not a usual practice, and also, it turned out were taking advantage of some unusual one-time tax breaks, resulting in a very rare 5% effective tax rate for their US Income Taxes for the quarter to get the results they were reporting.

Without these very unusual tactics, Alphabet's bottom line gains may very well have disappeared in a cloud of smoke and mirrors, especially if they use the more accepted GAAP accounting rules. As a result, under this scrutiny, the very high stock valuations of Alphabet's class A stock prices of over $830 evaporated quickly and its market cap dropped. -- PING!

Pinging ThunderSleeps and dayglored for their ping lists.

Apple's Market Cap
Back On Top
Ping!

The latest Apple/Mac/iOS Pings can be found by searching Keyword "ApplePingList" on FreeRepublic's Search.

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me

[gtwizard]

OMG It just hit me WHY Google changed it’s name and became a subsidiary of its parent company now named ALPHABET ... in an alphanumeric sort Alphabet comes BEFORE Apple!!

Sneaky sneaky

[Swordmaker]

OMG It just hit me WHY Google changed it’s name and became a subsidiary of its parent company now named ALPHABET ... in an alphanumeric sort Alphabet comes BEFORE Apple!!

I hadn't thought about that. You might be right.

Sneaky sneaky

Yep! But typical of their tactics.

[Darth Reardon]

Maybe it’s not bias, but flawed input.

Google search results:

“Apple retakes market cap lead” 27,400
“Apple takes market cap lead” 4.3 million

Change Apple to Google and the numbers are about 20% higher, but consistent in the relative difference between results using “retakes” vs. using “takes”.

So, if you search for “retakes” for one company and “takes” for another, of course you’re going to see a big difference (which seemed obvious even before I tested).

[bolobaby]

You don’t really expect to see anything objective on this subject come out of Mac Daily News, do you?

[roadcat]

Alphabet had reported their huge quarter using non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practices) accounting, not a usual practice, and also, it turned out were taking advantage of some unusual one-time tax breaks, resulting in a very rare 5% effective tax rate for their US Income Taxes for the quarter to get the results they were reporting.

Oh my gosh, Alphabet/Google is an evil corporation and doesn't pay their fair share of taxes! Don't use their products!

[Darth Reardon]

I don’t know, I’m not at all familiar with MDN. I just saw what I thought was glaring bad science and checked it out.

[bolobaby]

The name gives away their overwhelming bias.

[Moltke]

Gee...you mean by fudging with the search query until the results fit the agenda they can advance their cause? Why, color me surprised!

[Swordmaker]

"Apple takes market cap lead" 4.3 million

That would be including the two previous times that Apple took the market cap lead, not the current time. The RETAKE is the keyword that is important here, not that Apple took it originally. It was big news when Apple took the lead from Exxon/Mobil several years ago. The point here is that Alphabet/Google was touted as big news and they were saying it was going to be the first Trillion dollar company, now that it was speeding away from AAPL. It held that lead for less than 24 hours because their Financials were cooked to do it.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

My experience has taught me one very clear (and at first extremely painful) lesson:

If you expect facts/truth out of the worldwide MSM that do not conform with their agenda, you are [BLEEP]ing delusional.

If I even bother to read or listen to their crap, my usual reaction is to use them as an Absolute Negative Barometer: If the story says “A”, then only “Not A” is true.

Got a 99.99999 percent success factor with that deal since ‘67.....

[ThunderSleeps]

Who is really on top in terms of market capitalization - ANDROID PING!
Android Ping! If you want on or off the Android Ping List, Freepmail me.

---

Probably only of passing interest to most folks, be they in the Apple or Android camp. Personally, I find it kind of hard to get excited over which giant is bigger when they are both, well, giants.

[Swordmaker]

If you expect facts/truth out of the worldwide MSM that do not conform with their agenda, you are [BLEEP]ing delusional.

I also learned many years ago that main-stream journalists are as dumb as rocks, and that is insulting the rocks.

I found this out when my local newspaper published a national editorial from the New York Times bemoaning the fact that even though fewer babies were dying as a percentage in the first month after birth, after a twenty-year federal effort, expending many Billions of dollars, the national effort to fight infant mortality had to be deemed a failure because the infant death rates in half of the nation's cities were still below average. . . and to save money they were calling for the program to be cancelled.

Let that one sink in for a while.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

It was pretty big fan fare when Apple overtook Exxon. I believe a lot bigger than Google’s news. Of course Exxon was top dog for years, Apple for months and Google for hours.