[gratefulwharffratt]

Ah... yeah, right.

Ummm, what EXACTLY is your point??? The shares that MS bought of Apple's stock were purchased in August of '97, and had to be held for three years before they could be converted. Thus the period in question is from Aug. '97 to Aug '00.

For our purposes, I will NOT include dividend re-investment.

In Aug of '97 Apple's shares were trading at ~$8.00 per share. So $150,000,000 would have purchased 18,750,000 shares (assuming common shares for this example...). In August of '00 Apple's shares were trading at ~$58.00. Those 18,750,000 share would have been worth $1,087,500,000.00 or 1.087 BILLION.

In Aug of '97 Microsloth's shares were trading at ~$37.00 per share. So $150,000,000 would have purchased 4,054,054 shares (assuming common shares for this example...). In August of '00 Microsloth's shares were trading at ~$80.00. Those 4,054,054 shares would have been worth $324,324,324.32.

Hmmmm. Microsoft's investment would have been worth more than three times what they would have gotten had they invested in their own stock.

Again I ask, what is your point?? The slope of the lines in the first graph would have been a quick and dirty indicator of what I stated.

[bootyist-monk]

If you are an investor, get some professional advice immediately.

MS stock split twice during the time frame you indicated.

Seventh February 20, 1998 2 for 1
February 20-$155.13/
February 23-$81.63

Eighth March 26, 1999 2 for 1
March 26-$178.13/
March 29-$92.38

Care to try your math again, this time with the proper figures?

[bootyist-monk]

BTW, MS stock has split 8 times in its history. 6 times as a 2 for 1, twice as 3-2. If you had bought one share when they went public in 86, and held it until today, you'd have 144 shares for each one share purchased.

Now, explain to me again how Apple is the better investment?