Google owner Alphabet becomes trillion-dollar company

Google’s owner Alphabet has become a trillion-dollar company for the first time, making it only the fourth US firm to reach the bumper valuation.

Alphabet’s value, based on the price of its Wall Street-listed shares, passed $1tn (£776bn) in the final minutes of trading on Thursday night, with shares closing at a record high of $1,450.16 each. It marks a stellar rise for Alphabet, which floated as Google for $85 a share in 2004. After its initial public offering, the Silicon Valley firm was worth $23bn. It has followed its tech rivals Microsoft, Apple and Amazon over the $1tn mark, amid a long rally in so-called Faang stocks. Google’s value has steadily surged as it has tightened its grip on the search market, boosted its advertising revenues from web searches and YouTube, created and grown its Android mobile operating system, and launched a series of smart-tech products including Google Home and Google Assistant. […]

Click here to view original web page at www.theguardian.com