Research and Development Expense International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) reported the following on its 2018 form 10K.

$ millions	2018	2017	2016
Total revenue	$70,040	$69,642	$70,329
Research, development and engineering expense	5,379	5,590	5,726
Number of new patents awarded	8,008	7,958	7,117

Required a. Calculate IBMs commonsize research, development and engineering expense for each year. What pattern do we observe? Note: Round percentage to one decimal places (for example, enter 6.7% for 6.6555%).

	2018	2017	2016
RD&E expense common-size	Answer	Answer	Answer

RD&E Expense relative to sales has Answerincreaseddecreasedremained flat

over the years from 2016 to 2018. b. Compute the research, development and engineering expense per new patent for each year. What pattern do we observe? Note: Round percentage to one decimal places (for example, enter 6.7% for 6.6555%).

	2018	2017	2016
RD&E per patent as a percentage	Answer	Answer	Answer

RD&E spending per patent Answerincreaseddecreasedremained flat

over the years from 2016 to 2018