Alphabet is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. is engaged in a collection of businesses, which its primary business is Google. Co. reports all non-Google businesses collectively as Other Bets. Google's main products and platforms are Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. Co. also provides advertisers with tools that help them attribute and measure their advertising campaigns. In addition, Other Bets includes Access, Calico, CapitalG, GV, Verily, Waymo, and X, among others. Other Bets primarily engages in the sales of internet and TV services through Access as well as licensing and research and development services through Verily. We show 24 historical shares outstanding datapoints in our GOOG shares outstanding history coverage, used to compute GOOG market cap on those dates.
Understanding the changing numbers of shares outstanding, the changing
share price, and the resulting changing Alphabet market cap history over the course of time is important for investors
interested in comparing Alphabet's market cap history versus its peers.
Many "beginner" or "novice" investors will look at one stock trading at a price of $10 per share and another trading at
a price of $20 per share and think the latter company is worth twice as much. Of course, that is a completely meaningless comparison without also knowing how many shares outstanding there are for each of the two companies,
and then calculating their respective market caps. Comparing the share price of Alphabet versus a peer is one thing; comparing
Alphabet market cap versus a peer is a completely different story.
Furthermore, via fluctuation both in per-share price and in the number of shares outstanding (via issuance of new shares over time, the repurchase of existing shares),
the market cap for a company like Alphabet can fluctuate over the course of history.
With this page we aim to empower investors researching Alphabet by allowing them to research the Alphabet market cap history. |
Video: The Importance of Market Cap
