- Aug 6, 1997 - In a remarkable feat of negotiating legerdemain, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs got needed cash ($150M) — in return for non-voting shares — and an assurance that Microsoft would support Office for the Mac for five years. Apple agreed to drop a long-running lawsuit in which they alleged Microsoft copied the look and feel of the Mac OS for Windows and to make Internet Explorer the default browser on its computers — but not the only choice.
Via AP:
- Apple finished with a market value of $337 billion, beating Exxon's $331 billion. Apple occupies a rarefied spot once held by General Electric and Apple's own rival Microsoft.
- Exxon and General Electric had been trading off the No. 1 and No. 2 spots until Microsoft surpassed them both in early 1999, at the height of the dot-com boom. By 2000, though, GE was No. 1 once again.Exxon had held the top spot since 2005.
- Apple grew its net income 70 percent to $14 billion and its revenue 52 percent to $65 billion in the fiscal year that ended last September. A year earlier, even as other companies -- though not Exxon -- were reeling from the economic meltdown, Apple's earnings grew 35 percent and its revenue 14 percent.
- In its latest quarterly report, Apple said stronger iPhone and iPad sales helped more than double its net income to $7.3 billion and grow revenue by 82 percent to $29 billion. Exxon Mobil, meanwhile, posted a 41 percent increase in its second-quarter earnings to nearly $11 billion, the largest since it set a record of nearly $15 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Its revenue grew 36 percent to $125 billion.
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