[DwnVoteHoneyPot]

Dividends/buy-backs and layoffs are derived from the same concept. The company has excess resources they do not plan to use in the future. If you have excess cash, return it to the shareholder. If you have excess employees, reduce head count. It means the company doesn't want to build anything at the moment (for various reasons include prep for a downturn).

[MuffinFlavored]

> The idea of comparing the expected return from a project to a risk-free rate, such as the return on a Treasury bond, is a common method used in finance to assess the riskiness of an investment. This is known as the cost of capital, which represents the minimum rate of return that an investment must generate to be considered economically viable.

How would you breakdown the distribution of projects inside of Apple from a return perspective?

Some will be 0% or negative due to R&D.

Some will be massively profitable (net 20-40% margins).

How do you decide what the right amount of loss-leading R&D projects to have is?

[chad_stevens]

You should read this article,

https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/08/the-value-of-noth...