[mondeo123]

http://news.sky.com/story/1013556/ap...104bn-is-wiped

[darkjedimaster]

Makes the £1bn they sued Samsung for seem like pennies. This £104bn loss is exactly what Apple deserved.

[Joel's dad]

Not surprised tbb

[djpalmer93]

They were the biggest company in the world in terms of market value anyway, so I don't think it will make much difference.

[b1ackb1rd]

Chortle

[IslandNiles]

Article mentions the fiscal cliff and US economic factors. It'd be interesting to see the share price set in the context of year on year value, and also the performance of comparable companies over the period covered in the article.

[Rich_L]

That would pay off all our UK debt!!

[huwdw]

Originally Posted by Rich_L

That would pay off all our UK debt!!

If only...

[CoolboyA]

Originally Posted by Rich_L

That would pay off all our UK debt!!

£104bn would pay off about 1/12 of our debt...

[TheBigM]

It's not a loss at all, whoever wrote that is business and financially illiterate.
Yes, Apple's market capitalisation lost value. It is simply a case of investors not seeing continued growth in profits like Apple has had these past years. Also the looming tax rises in the US will a) depress demand for luxury goods like Apple and b) reduce the profit that can be paid as dividends to shareholders.

[Matt D]

Originally Posted by Rich_L

That would pay off all our UK debt!!

But then we would all belong to Apple

[Voynich]

I read that Samsung is supposedly raising the price of the chips they supply Apple too.

[IvanIV]

That's Cook's Christmas presents gone right there. Only one island this year, then

[niceguy1966]

Originally Posted by TheBigM

It's not a loss at all, whoever wrote that is business and financially illiterate.
Yes, Apple's market capitalisation lost value. It is simply a case of investors not seeing continued growth in profits like Apple has had these past years. Also the looming tax rises in the US will a) depress demand for luxury goods like Apple and b) reduce the profit that can be paid as dividends to shareholders.

Share prices go down as well as up, it makes little difference to the company, and quite often is based on pure speculation about a companies future prospects

[Rich_L]

Originally Posted by CoolboyA

£104bn would pay off about 1/12 of our debt...

I didn't know it was a trillion!! My bad.

[Resonance]

Originally Posted by Rich_L

I didn't know it was a trillion!! My bad.

The £104 billion wouldn't even cover this years borrowing which will be £130+ billion.

If you really want to scare yourself

http://www.debtbombshell.com/

[Helbore]

Originally Posted by djpalmer93

They were the biggest company in the world in terms of market value anyway, so I don't think it will make much difference.

Only $165 billion worth of difference.

[misar]

Originally Posted by TheBigM

whoever wrote that is business and financially illiterate.

Would you care to justify that statement? The title reflects the recent slight improvement in Apple's loss of market value since the beginning of the year. If you read the article it gives a factual description of what has happened to the share price this year and mentions a few of the possible reasons for the changes suggested by analysts or other market watchers.

[tdenson]

Originally Posted by misar

Would you care to justify that statement? The title reflects the recent slight improvement in Apple's loss of market value since the beginning of the year. If you read the article it gives a factual description of what has happened to the share price this year and mentions a few of the possible reasons for the changes suggested by analysts or other market watchers.

TheBigM is correct. The OP and the ensuing messages suggest that Apple has suffered a balance sheet loss. In actual fact over the same period while the stock price has been falling Apple has made its usual healthy profit. Fluctuations in stock price do not necessarily reflect what is going on in a business sense, and indeed have no bearing on day to day business. The only people it affects are shareholders.

[grumpyoldbat]

Indeed Apple making a loss would mean its costs outweigh its revenue. It's still got billions of cash in the bank and it's made huge profits for every quarter in the last few years.

The lowering of its market value is most likely down to the fact that stupid analysts keep expecting them to make ever more ridiculous levels of profit, or breed unicorns or something, and so when they don't achieve that, trading in their shares drops in price, and so their market value lowers.

Shareholders won't get quite as big a dividend, but their market value over the last 10 years has grown phenomenally, and they're still the highest valued tech company around.

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by CoolboyA

£104bn would pay off about 1/12 of our debt...

No that's the deficit, not the debt. Many people make that mistake though.

The deficit is the overspend, and the debt is the total amount repayable. We have been overspending year in year out, this is the deficit.

[tdenson]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

No that's the deficit, not the debt. Many people make that mistake though.

The deficit is the overspend, and the debt is the total amount repayable. We have been overspending year in year out, this is the deficit.

No, I think CoolboyA was approximately right. According to the national debt clock page the national debt is currently about £1.1 trillion (though 104 billion is nearer a 10th than a 12th)

[finbaar]

Apple has over a huge amounts of cash stashed away. I heard on a show the other week that they had enough to cover costs for several years if they never sold another device. I wonder what they will do with it?

[kyussmondo]

Really no big deal and doesn't make much difference to Apple. They still have huge amounts of cash, this is just based on speculation from markets.

[Stuart_h]

Originally Posted by kyussmondo

Really no big deal and doesn't make much difference to Apple. They still have huge amounts of cash, this is just based on speculation from markets.

They might have loads of cash but I think 25% plus of their market value is a fairly "big deal" for any company......

Agreed its not panic stations and the company isn't about to go bust but it shows a distinct change in market confidence for a company that has made a monumental rise in the last few years.