Just in case anyone cares... Apple's investment returns in ARM were huge. I'm not sure how much they invested in ARM, but it was small and came out of the initiative to create the Newton. Apple basically owned ARM (almost 50%) pre-IPO in 1998.
Here are the pretax returns on the various sales of ARM stock by Apple over the years. Apple no longer has any shares of ARM,
1998 - April 17 IPO, sold shares for gain of $24M
1998 - 3rd quarter, recognized other income of $16M
1998 - October 14, sold shares for gain of $22M
1999 - Sold shares for gain of $230M.
2000 - Sold shares for gain of $373M.
2001 - Sold shares for gain of $174M.
2002 - Sold shares for gain of $21M.
2003 - Sold shares for gain of $295K.
Total gain of $860M (pre-tax).
Note that this profit generated much more money for AAPL then the Newton's R&D costs and Apple wouldn't have invested in ARM if not for the Newton.
It is the same for all of Apple's equity investments. Apple only invests in partners that it deems strategic to its future. Apple is NOT a mutual stock fund and shouldn't be graded as such. Its cash horde is invested in the most conservative fashion (mostly in cash and cash equivalents) and is there not to generate revenue but to make sure Apple has the resources to fund "the next big thing".
Kevin
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
