Google soars to pass IBM valuation dpa German Press Agency

Published: Tuesday October 24, 2006 San Francisco- Internet advertising giant Google has surpassed IBM to become the world's third most valuable technology company, trailing only behind software giant Microsoft and network leader Cisco. With the company's stock trading around 475 dollars per share Tuesday, Google's market capitalization reached some 145 billion dollars, surpassing the total value of IBM at 139.5 billion.



Google leapfrogged the venerable tech giant when its shares surged over 5 per cent on Monday following the reporting of stellar financial results last week which saw its profits almost double compared to the corresponding period one year ago.



Google's value easily exceeds that of other tech giants like Hewlett-Packard (109 billion dollars) and Intel (123 billion dollars). It has an even clearer lead over other web companies like eBay (45 billion dollars), Yahoo (32 billion dollars) and Amazon (14 billion dollars).



It is now breathing down the neck of Cisco, which has a value of around 147.5 billion dollars, but still has a long way to go to catch Microsoft at 279 billion dollars.



Google is worth some 58 billion dollars more than the combined value of America's three largest automakers DaimlerChrysler (54 billion dollars), General Motors (20 billion dollars) and Ford (15 billion dollars).



The world's most valuable enterprise is oil company ExxonMobil, which is valued at 416 billion dollars. Other business giants are General Electric worth approximately 367 billion dollars and the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart with a value of about 214 billion dollars.



The two Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have fortunes of around 14 billion dollars each and are the youngest members of the Forbes list of the richest Americans, where they occupy places 12 and 13.



© 2006 dpa German Press Agency



