[booop]

> maybe a hundred times over---PARC spent a few million but the laser printer pulled in a few billion

Difference being Xerox made billions after spending a few million on research. Alphabet/Google on the other hand have poured in billions into what are now called their 'Other Bets' over the past two years and despite what impact they've made the revenues have been dismal and growth was stagnant last year.

[AnthonyMouse]

You're looking at it on the wrong timescale. Two years is nothing. This is, again, the failing of modern business school and investor logic. If you spend a billion dollars a year to produce something that will go on to generate ten billion dollars a year in profit forevermore, but produces nothing for the first five or so years, looking at it on a two year timescale is clearly not going to produce an accurate picture of its long-term profitability.