Those of you who find Apple Inc., its executives, and its fan base to be smug and arrogant may want to sit this one out.

The company was just named by Fortune as the single most admired company in the world today. Of course, much of this is credited to Steve Jobs, who took over a company that seemed to be in the short road to oblivion and turned it around into a multimedia powerhouse and the perennial Silicon Valley Trend setter.

Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway came in second, followed by General Electric. The next-closest tech firm on the list was Google, at #4. Microsoft came in at #16, sandwiched in between discount supermarket chain Costco and the United Parcel Service.

04 Mar 2008