Pleasantly plump: Apple, already the world’s most valuable company, hit the $600 billion level for the first time Tuesday. Only one other company has been worth $600 billion: Apple’s old sparring partner Microsoft Corp., which reached that valuation for 13 trading days around the turn of the millennium, at the peak of the technology stock mania. At its highest level, on Dec. 30, 1999, Microsoft’s valuation was $619 billion. It’s now worth about $255 billion. General Electric Co. came just short of reaching a $600 billion valuation in August 2000. Apple’s market capitalization hit $500 billion on Feb. 29. That, in itself, was a rare achievement: Only five other U.S. companies have ever been worth that much. Apple’s market capitalization is still well below Microsoft’s 1999 record when inflation is taken into account. The $619 billion then is equivalent to $846 billion.
Don’t even ask: Maryland recently gave a big “dislike” to employers asking for social media passwords, becoming the first state to pass a bill banning the practice, The Los Angeles Times reports. The state Senate and House last week passed their versions of the bill that prohibits bosses from “requesting or requiring that an employee or applicant disclose any user name, password, or other means for accessing a personal account or service through specified electronic communications devices; prohibiting an employer from taking, or threatening to take, specified disciplinary actions for an employee’s refusal to disclose specified password and related information; prohibiting an employee from downloading specified information or data.” Read the full story here.
Signed, sealed, delivered: A new Walmart, employing about 300 people, opened this morning on La. 16 in Watson. The 156,000-square-foot store is the third Walmart in Livingston Parish and will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Parish President Layton Ricks says the new store will provide new jobs and tax revenue, and may spur other developments such as restaurants and other retail stores. As part of the grand opening, former LSU, Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Ben McDonald is scheduled to sign autographs from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. today, and cast members of the History Channel’s Swamp People are scheduled to sign autographs Saturday from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.
Correction
An article in Tuesday’s Daily Report PM stated The Wilson Foundation, which is donating $100,000 to the Family and Youth Service Center of East Baton Rouge, is based in Dallas. The nonprofit is based in Baton Rouge. Daily Report regrets the error.
Today’s poll question: Do you think the University of Arkansas made the right decision in firing football coach Bobby Petrino?
