- According to the Financial Times, Amazon added most fortune during the pandemic followed by Microsoft and Apple.
A few have shone in a bleak year of a pandemic for most companies: pharmaceutical firms boosted by their search for a Covid-19 vaccine; technology corporations bolstered by the move to operate from home; and retailers selling online lockdown essentials. Public corporations had the tailwind of a remarkably strong stock market – a bubble that many believe. We have opted to look at equity added value to rate businesses that prospered in the pandemic. We’ll look at an alternate gage of success later in the show, as well as the major corporate losers and four thematic winners: pharma, cloud computing, e-commerce, and gaming.
Here are the top 5 companies which gained most during the pandemic:
Amazon
When world leaders ordered their people indoors, Amazon became the emergency calling point for those eager to stock up on critical household goods — a rush that forced the company to close down its warehouses immediately of “non-essential” items. High sales followed, but expenses have soared. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos warned that as much as $4bn could be spent on virus prevention, including research laboratories and thermal cameras — potentially driving Amazon into its first quarterly loss since 2015. Nevertheless, the rapid move to online shopping and the growing importance of its cloud computing business in the remote work age propelled Amazon’s stock to ever-high levels. Amazon added a $401.1 billion market cap.
Microsoft
The transition from Microsoft to the cloud under Satya Nadella has left it well-placed for a world in which vast numbers of people operate remotely. The Teams contact app has become a way to keep in touch with the team. To several businesses, the Azure cloud computing platform has become a more important component of the digital backbone. Microsoft also has a way of pleasing its staff: record 90m players switched to Xbox Live Gaming service in March. Microsoft added $269.9 billion to its market cap.
Apple
Although all of Apple’s 500 stores worldwide were forced to close but opening quarter revenues were resilient thanks to strong online sales. Apple has managed to introduce a new iPhone, iMac, and MacBook Air, bringing more customers into an ever-expanding wearables and services ecosystem. When millions of customers working from home would opt to upgrade their devices, Apple executives expected sales of certain products would also increase. Apple became the first company to reach a $1.5 trillion market cap. Apple added $219.1 billion to the market cap.
Tesla
Tesla, the strong technology pioneer in battery-powered vehicles, outperforms traditional rivals as they are struggling to retool factories and perfect apps. Elsewhere, Chief Executive Elon Musk is planning to upgrade the whole car ownership model with self-driving Robo taxis fleets that will charge the mile. On May 1 on Facebook, however, even Musk said that the “Tesla stock price is too high.” It’s climbed much higher ever since. Tesla added $108.4 billion to its market cap.
Tencent
At home alienated, Chinese people turned to the virtual worlds of Tencent. Users shelled out for new weapons and costumes in its hit games like Honor of Kings. Tencent’s video subscription numbers swelled to 112 m, his music streamers soared to 43 m, and monthly users of his WeChat social networking app — important for buying noodles and testing the safety of users during the coronavirus time — reached 1.2bn. Tencent has been leveraging declining valuations in a global spree of spending: it recently purchased Norwegian game developer Funcom, took a stake in German developer Yager and poured money into several fintech start-ups. Tencent added $93 billion to its market cap.
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