Top 5 companies in market capitalization during 2011.
A surge in Samsung Electronics’ smartphone business has boosted its market capitalization to $136.9 billion.
The figure raises Samsung to fifth in market capitalization among global IT firms, ahead of the world’s second-biggest software maker Oracle.
``We hope for a better year next year despite all difficulties,’’ said a spokesman.
According to the data compiled by financial sources, Oracle’s market cap as of Dec. 23 was estimated at $131 billion. Samsung is ahead of Intel by $12 billion.
All the top four were American companies. Apple is No. 1 at $374.9 billion, followed by Microsoft with $219 billion, IBM with $217.7 billion and Google, $205.1 billion.
``Last year, Oracle was ahead of Samsung in terms of market capitalization by more than $30 billion, but continued sluggish performances and stabilizing dollar-won rates helped the Korean firm,’’ the spokesman said.
In the third quarter of this year, Samsung became the world’s biggest smartphone maker after passing Apple thanks to its Galaxy-branded smartphones.
Analysts and even top decision-makers at the company have no doubt that it will become the world’s biggest overall maker of handsets, after overtaking Finland’s Nokia.
"Samsung needs to further lift awareness,’’ Florian Mueller, a German-based patent expert, said in an email. Mueller runs the FossPatents blog.
Horace Dediu, founder of the mobile industry blog Asymco, separately told The Korea Times that Samsung should eliminate or reduce its heavy dependence on Google and Microsoft for greater sustainability of its mobile business.
"Samsung has an enormous collection of products. This shows that the company values a portfolio approach versus a target approach. The increase in options may seem to be a good thing but it creates confusion, dilution of brand and increased costs,’’ said the Finland-based analyst.
"Samsung does not seem to have confidence in its ability to choose which products will be successful and which won’t.’’
Source: koreatimes
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