Apple Bonds: How Much Could Happen in 30 Years?

One of the more remarkable things about Apple’s record debt sale on April 30 was that $3 billion of it came in the form of 30-year bonds. That’s a common duration in such sectors as financials and health care—but not so much in technology, where fortunes are made and destroyed by the constant churn of innovation.

Just think of all the things that the last 30 years have brought. The Macintosh. Windows. The Internet. Google. The iPhone and iPad. The rise, fall, rise, and fall of Apple itself. Now try to envision what might change in the tech industry between now and 2043—the same year that Ali Lohan, younger sister of Lindsay, becomes eligible for membership in AARP. (Also, try to envision how investors will feel about having lent to Apple at a rate just 1 percentage point higher than virtually riskless U.S. Treasuries.)