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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

The buzzword of last week was "market cap." To those unfamiliar, market cap is the total value of outstanding shares of a company, and on May 26th at around 3PM Eastern, Apple's market value reached $225.1 billion, surpassing Microsoft's $222.3 billion. Apple isn't the largest technology company around, but it's become the most valuable, and it's valuation is second only to Exxon in the US. Later that same week, Microsoft announced that Robbie Bach and J Allard, the head of its Entertainment and Devices group and the division's CTO, were both leaving the company. There's been speculation that these two events were somehow intertwined, but I don't think that's the case. In addition, as good as Robbie and J are, there's more to the E & D team than two people -- as grandpa used to say, the cemeteries are full of people who couldn't be replaced.

Historically, Microsoft has always been two companies, the parts that made lots of money (Windows, Office, Server) and the parts that don't make money yet but might someday soon. E & D is the latest incarnation of the latter. Let's take a closer look.

Continue reading Entelligence: Market caps and dunce caps

Entelligence: Market caps and dunce caps originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Jun 2010 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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