Google overtakes Cisco as Silicon Valley's most valuable
Google, the fast growing search engine, has eclipsed Cisco Systems, the router maker for the Internet, to become Silicon Valley’s most valuable company.
We’d been waiting for this to happen.
We first noticed Google achieve its new status yesterday, when it hit a stock market value of $160 billion, slightly higher than Cisco’s $159 billion, however the eclipse may have happened earlier, say on Wednesday.
Right now, though, Cisco is still hanging on. It has traded upward today. In fact, the values of both Google ad Cisco have been seesawing, switching back and forth all morning. It should be a matter of time before Google stretches its lead, being the new company with more momentum. However, if the economy falters, and advertising dips (and recent Wall Street jitters may be reflecting fears about a downturn in consumer spending), Cisco may surge back. That’s one reason why Google’s stock has dropped over the last day, and why Cisco may yet end up at top at the day’s closing.
Google still has a long way to go before catching Microsoft, the nation’s most valuable technology company, which is valued at $285 billion. Or, if you look outside the tech world, oil company Exxon Mobil is valued at $459 billion.
The above screenshot of values was taken at about 10:20am Friday.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
