Apple’s rise from being nearly bankrupt to market leader under Steve Jobs

Asymco has released a couple of charts chronicling Apple’s rise from near bankruptcy to becoming the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation in the 14 years that Steve Jobs helmed the company.

The charts compare the performance of the company’s stock against its peers in the technology industry. Going up against it are Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Samsung, HP, Lenovo, Nokia, HTC, Sony, RIM, LG, Dell, Acer, Motorola and formerly independent companies Compaq and Palm.

The first chart shows the market capitalisation (in USD million) of these companies by calendar quarter between the years 1997 – 2011:

The second one shows the combined market capitalisation of the same companies in the same time period:

The charts provide an interesting look at not only the phenomenal rise of Apple but also the steadily falling market valuation of Microsoft and the relatively recent coming to prominence of Amazon. Under Jobs, Apple gained 42% every year on average in stock valuation over the course of 14 years, which is “an unprecedented track record”. Today, its stock valuation is roughly equal to the market caps of Acer, Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, HTC, Lenovo, LG, Motorola Mobility, Nokia, RIM, Samsung and Sony combined!

For a more detailed look at the graphs, head on over to Asymco.