
285
7
Google
BIG DATA GIANTS
We suggest that looking at market cap (shares outstanding times dollar
value thereof) is one quick way of ascertaining the “gianthood” of a cor-
poration. Table7.1 shows some of them in a tabular format (March 2014).
With nine companies, we are looking at nearly $2trillion in market
capitalization. With some of these rms, their market cap is small because
they focus on one or two capabilities (LinkedIn) rather than becoming a
one-stop center for all things (Amazon). e Google presence is interest-
ing because their business is dominated by services, whereas Apple sells
soware and hardware as well as some services.