Originally Posted by A credible finance website

As several sharp-eyed readers immediately noted (and we forgot), Apple has an unusual method of accounting for some of its cash on hand, which is that it classifies $18 billion of cash as a long-term investment. (This is because the cash is invested in Treasuries with maturities of more than a year). When this cash is included in the company's cash balance, Apple has $42 billion of cash, not $23 billion. This reduces its enterprise value by $18 billion or so, which still puts it below Microsoft's, at least for a few more days. Yahoo Finance's simple calculation of enterprise value is standard, but a more detailed analysis of Apple's liquid assets shows that the market still values Microsoft's business more highly than Apple's. We apologize for jumping the gun!