Wednesday Apple Rumors: Apple Tops U.S. Billion Dollar Brands List

by Christopher Freeburn | March 19, 2014 12:58 pm

[1]Here are your Apple rumors[2] and AAPL news items for today:

Leader: According to British marketing agency Brand Finance, Apple (AAPL[3]) is the most valuable American brand[4] in 2014. Brand Finance estimates the value of the Apple brand at $104.6 billion, well ahead of second ranked Google (GOOG[5]), whose brand value was appraised at just $68.6 billion. Microsoft (MSFT[6]) was ranked third with a brand value of $62.8 billion. Apple was one of a number of technology companies to make Brand Finance’s list of the top 50 billion-dollar brands in the U.S. The list, which evaluated the top 500 U.S. companies, was compiled by calculating how much royalties could be derived from each brand. The other U.S. companies to make the top ten list were Verizon (VZ[7]), General Electric (GE[8]), AT&T (T[9]), Amazon (AMZN[10]), Walmart (WMT[11]), IBM (IBM[12]) and Coca-Cola (KO[13]). Apple also remains the most valuable brand among global companies[14] in 2014. Samsung is ranked second on Brand Finance’s list of the top 10 global brands, behind Apple and ahead of Google, with a estimated value of $78.6 billion. Microsoft, Verizon, General Electric, AT&T, Amazon, Walmart and IBM round of the remainder of the top 10 global brands list.

Shifting: A report from a Korean news source says that Apple has moved more display orders to Samsung[15], AppleInsider notes. The report indicates that Apple has moved iPad Mini display orders for the second quarter away AU Optronics and Sharp. AU Optronics will no longer produce displays for the non-Retina iPad Mini, and the report did identify a new manufacturer for those screens, possibly signaling that the basic iPad Mini tablet could be dropped. Display orders to LG were likely not affected by the move. Apple has sought to reduce its reliance on Samsung for supply chain components as the two companies have become rivals in the global mobile device market.

Critique: A new book that looks at how Apple is coping with the death of co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs has drawn a sharp rebuke[16] from current CEO Tim Cook, CNBC notes. Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs, written by a former Wall Street Journal scribe Yukari Iwatani Kane, draws on interviews with current and former Apple employees, painting a bleak picture of Apple without Jobs. In a statement, Cook described the book as “nonsense,” saying it “fails to capture Apple, Steve, or anyone else in the company.” Cook describes himself as “very confident” about Apple’s future and notes that the company has faced doubts about its prospect in the past.  “They only make us stronger,” he added. Responding to Cook’s remarks, Kane replied that the book “must have touched a nerve,” to provoke such comments.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors[17] stories.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2014/03/wednesday-apple-rumors-apple-tops-u-s-billion-dollar-brands-list/

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