Then I tuned out for 12 years. (I came to believe the stock market was a rigged insider's game, but that's another story.) Given how badly they've been managed during that time and the explosion of mobile, I assumed Microsoft had dropped not only out of the top spot but out of the top ten, probably worse.
Nope. Never dropped below 6th worldwide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by_...
That's just astounding to me. Google has done almost everything right since its founding, dominating the Internet wave (and a massive portion of online advertising), grabbing a huge chunk of the mobile revolution and getting its tentacles in almost every area of disruption... and yet for all of the success and raw brainpower, batting as close to 1000 as a company possibly can for 15 years, they still haven't eclipsed Microsoft, which bumbled its way through the 2000s in embarrassing fashion. Very hard to comprehend.