Return on Investment (ROI)

Definition

Profit divided by investment—showing how much money you made relative to what you put in, assuming you're measuring profit honestly.

Example Usage

That acquisition had a 25% ROI over five years, which basically met our minimum threshold.

Origin

Business metric, early 20th century

Fun Fact

ROI calculations depend entirely on how you define 'investment' and 'profit,' which is why companies report varying ROI

Source: Standard business performance metric

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