, Columnist
Apple Is Going to Be the First Trillion-Dollar Company
It's only $100 billion away.
During the dot-com-crazed 1990s, Cisco Systems Inc. became the world’s most valuable company. Widely expected to become the first company to hit a trillion-dollar1519927012998 capitalization, it made it barely halfway there. When the technology sector peaked in March 2000, Cisco had a market capitalization near $550 billion.
From that peak, the entire technology sector imploded. Cisco fared even worse than the Nasdaq, losing 87 percent from its zenith to its nadir. Today, some 18 years later, Cisco is worth about $221 billion; its average annual compounded returns from those lofty heights is a negative -2.17 percent per year, including reinvested dividends.