December 23, 2010, 11:24 AM — This has been a good week to be Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Not only are his company's iPad and iPhone shaping up to be holiday hits, Jobs was lauded Wednesday by President Obama as someone who deserves to be wealthy because he has "created two or three different revolutionary products." Then the Financial Times named Jobs its "Person of the Year."
(Also see: Ever wonder which tech companies are worth the most? Wonder no more)
But if that's not enough holiday cheer for Jobs, shares of Apple (NASDAD: AAPL) hit another all-time high on Wednesday, reaching 325.72 before settling back to close at 325.16. It was the first time Apple closed above $325 a share.
For the year, Apple's stock has gained 54.3 percent from the Dec. 31 closing price of 210.73. Since then Apple's value has grown to $297 billion, enabling it to surpass Microsoft ($242 billion) as the most valuable technology company in the world. And check out this: Apple's market capitalization is nearly twice that of online search giant Google's ($150 billion).
Now for the bad news: AAPL shares were trading in the red early Thursday, down 1.62, or 0.5 percent, to 323.54. Let's see how Mr. Jobs handles adversity.
Chris Nerney writes about the business side of technology market strategies and trends, legal issues, leadership changes, mergers, venture capital, IPOs and technology stocks. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisNerney.
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