There’s more bad news for Apple today as the company loses the title of most valuable company, following news last Friday that a San Jose federal judge nearly cut in half its billion dollar damages award in its patent case against Samsung.
At the end of regular trading Monday Apple shares were selling for $420, down from a high of $705 a share on Sept. 21, 2012. That gives Apple a market capitalization – the share price times the number of shares available – of $394.45 billion, which puts Apple just a notch below the new most valuable company, Exxon Mobil, with a market cap of $399.4 billion.
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh reduced by $450 million, the $1.05 billion in damages awarded to Apple by a San Jose jury in August of last year, which found that rival Samsung had infringed multiple Apple patents in Samsung’s smartphone and tablet computer products. The reduction of damages ruling was reported by the San Jose Mercury News.
Judge Koh ruled that the damages awarded by the jury that she threw out were improperly calculated and were excessive. She ordered a new trial for the patent claims on about a dozen Samsung products at issue.
Meanwhile, Koh upheld about $600 million in damages related to other Samsung products that the jury said infringed on Apple patents. While those infringing products are older models like the Samsung Fascinate, Epic 4G and Galaxy S II smartphones, a separate Apple lawsuit is alleging patent violations by newer Samsung products such as the Galaxy S III smartphone and the Galaxy Tablet 10.1 tablet computer. That trial is scheduled to get underway in the spring on 2014 in San Jose, the Mercury News reported.
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