Among S&P 500 Companies, Intangible Assets Have Gone From 17% Of Total Assets In 1975 To 90% Last Year. Stunning.
If you want to pick one statistic that indicates how much business has changed in the last half century, I’d choose this one: intangible assets as a percentage of total assets. It shows the rise of things like patents, software, data, brand, and the decline of hard assets like land, buildings, equipment, inventory. Ben Carlson cites a version of that data in his essay for our new Quarterly Investment Guide, noting that among S&P 500 companies, intangible assets have gone from 17% of total assets in 1975 to 90% last year. Stunning.
This news was originally published at Fortune.