However, with the point I was trying to make, IBM was recouping their costs on those rentals within a year or two. They had a "disappointing" $2bn profit in a s

However, with the point I was trying to make, IBM was recouping their costs on those rentals within a year or two. They had a "disappointing" $2bn profit in a single quarter of 1979 [0] (very roughly, about $7Bn in today's currency), on $16Bn of revenue. They weren't exactly thin margins. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/12/archives/ibm-net-falls-18.html https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/12/archives/ibm-net-falls-18...