On Apple investments..
Langostino, I'm not defending Apple's investment history inspite of the facts. Rather, I'm saying that it seems fairly impressive based on the facts (at least as I understand them).
Would I fire my money manager for idly watching an investment drop from $100 to $10? Probably not if the investment (a) had cost $1 and (b) had been undertaken to support a company which was deemed to be of strategic importance in the first place. The latter factor seems to be overlooked in your characterization of Jibs as a business dummy.
For example, Jobs investment in the start up "Adobe" proved very profitable for in a simple dollar sense (in adjusted dollars, comparable to the ARM, as I understanf the figures), but I think the more important benefit was supporting a company developing technology (PostScript) that provided Apple with enormous value. I think the same logic should be applied to Apple's investments in Akamai and ARM (on which Apple also made a pile of dough, even if the pile might have been much larger).