Google edges ahead of Microsoft, becomes world’s second most valuable tech company

Google has passed Microsoft to become the world's second most valuable technology company.

It’s all-change at the top of the financial market charts, as old-hand Microsoft has been toppled from its lofty position as the second most-valuable technology company in the world, by young upstart Google.

At the close of trading on Monday, Google narrowly topped Microsoft’s total value, with reports showing Google hitting a valuation of $249.1 billion (Bloomberg.com puts the figure at $249.9 billion) compared to Microsoft’s $247.2 billion. The New York Post shows that the trend was evident when trading opened too, although the gap was much smaller at $248.8 billion for Google and $248.1 billion for Microsoft.

On the surface it appears that Microsoft’s stock has been falling, but it’s the opposite, as its share price has stayed fairly steady over the past few months, with a positive upturn occurring recently. But Google’s stock has been steadily rising, and a sudden drop-off for Microsoft provided the catalyst for the position swap.

Google is fresh from its astonishing performance during the second quarter of 2012, where IDC reported that 85-percent of all smartphones shipped between April and June this year had Android installed, giving the OS a massive 68-percent market share.

Microsoft on the other hand, should be in a similar position, with plenty of attention focused on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Both are due for release very soon — October 26 for Windows 8 and potentially, November for Windows Phone 8 — and hardware manufacturers have been busy announcing products for both. It’s surprising then, to see Microsoft slip at this stage.

So, with Google moving into second position, you may be thinking that it’s only a short leap before it become the world’s number one most valuable tech firm. While this is always possible, the leap is far from being short, as Apple holds the number one spot at the moment, and is worth more than Google and Microsoft combined at $618.1 billion.