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"For the past year or so, the financial press has been watching as Apple has claimed and then forfeited its status as the world's most valuable company.\nIn that case the measure is market capitalization and Apple's main rival is ExxonMobil. However, if you look at another stat \u2014 enterprise value \u2014 Apple has just been eclipsed by Google. \nWhat is enterprise value? Essentially, it's the value of a company's business. If you strip away Apple's $145 billion in cash and Google's $45 billion then Google now has an enterprise value of $241 billion vs. $233 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal, which notes that Google surpassed Apple in EV last week. \nIs this a valid metric? Investopedia notes that \"many consider it to be a more accurate representation of a firm's value\" and EV represents the \"theoretical takeover price.\" \nThe issue isn't necessarily settled, though. It's unclear whether The WSJ took into account Apple's recent $17 billion debt offering, which would lower its amount of on-hand cash. \nMeanwhile, if you go by market cap, Apple is still worth $100 billion more than Google. As of Wednesday morning. Apple's market cap was $378.5B vs. $278.4 billion for Google. ExxonMobil's was $396.2 billion. \nImage via Getty, Justin Sullivan"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/06/26/google-apple-enterprise-value/>