There may be near infinite opportunities to invest, but that does not mean they can be profitable.

Also, if something is a good investment, it doesn't mean it is a good investment for a given company.

That’s true and a good general guide but the current incentives for the executive team to under invest in long term health of a business and boost short term profit are overwhelming this rational analysis.

The incentive for the executive team are set by the board and shareholders, who could easily restructure incentives to favor R&D investment. Whether is this is good for long term profit will be different from case to case.

I worked at a company where annual goals routinely included invest X billion on new technology acquisitions. Some of this money sticks and some doesn't.

> It’s literally impossible to exhaust R&D Opportunities.

It is not impossible, however, to exhaust R&D opportunities with an expected NPV greater than zero.

that's only limited by how you define the industry you're in. we'd have a lot more to worry about if no NPV positive opportunities existed at all (which would imply an exhaustion of relatively free raw inputs).

>that's only limited by how you define the industry you're in.

I have seen a lot of great companies acquired and destroyed by parent companies in another industry.

It certainly can and is often done well, but is not trivial or risk free.

no doubt it's fraught with risk (including risks specific to diversifying or m&a), but all NPV-positive opportunities are at least a little risky by definition (no risk, no return).

acquisitions in general are all too often vanity projects, rather than synergistic value creators they're purported to be.

> It’s literally impossible to exhaust R&D Opportunities.

Tell that to AAPL: how many projects got cut when Jobs came back to run the company in the 1990s.

Just because you can spend time on something does not mean you should. A company has a finite amount of employess, who have a finite amount of hours of daylight, with competitors nipping at their heels.