Apple’s market capitalization is very close to Microsoft’s – $214 billion vs. $256 billion.

So if Apple’s stock goes up another 19.5% (from $235.97 to $282.03/share) they will be caught up. The amount of net cash both companies have on their balance sheets are similar. On the income side, Apple has $9.4 billion in net income for the past 4 quarters, while Microsoft has $16.3 billion.

The question of the day is the following: If you managed to find $256 billion in spare change behind the couch and were forced to buy Microsoft or Apple (and just one; no diversification allowed!), which would you buy?

My gut instinct (rather than any rigorous financial analysis – of which I haven’t bothered to perform) suggests that while I’d rather pick Apple over Vancouver real estate, Apple is only second to Amazon in terms of hype-driven valuation.

Of note right now is that Cisco and Intel combined trade at around $272 billion.