Apple

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As Apple's stock rose to new high on Monday, the technology giant set another record: It became the most valuable public company in history. Apple's market value -- the price of its stock multiplied by the number of outstanding shares -- soared to $623.5 billion at the market's close. That eclipsed the previous record of $618.9 billion set by Microsoft on Dec. 30, 1999, at the height of the dot-com bubble, according to Howard Silverblatt, S&P's senior index analyst. Apple shares hit a new record of $665.15 per share. The anticipated September launch of the new iPhone, coupled with rumors of a smaller iPad and a more feature-rich Apple TV have lifted the stock in recent weeks. It's a stunning achievement for a company that was a struggling also-ran when Microsoft was setting records in the late 1990s. Apple was valued at less than $10 billion as recently as 2004, and at $100 billion just three years ago. Since 2007, however, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) has been an unstoppable force. Its iPhone business alone now brings in more money than Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500). Even the iPad, which was intended to be a gap-filling product between the iPhone and the Macintosh, has itself become a multi-billion dollar product for Apple. more...