How about SAS grew from 10 million in revenues in 1980 to 1 1 billion by 2000 A larger proportion of these revenues are spent on research and development than at most other software companies at one point more than double the industry average I think that could be copy edited but it makes the claim a bit more general and notes that the 2 5 figure was a point in time not a constant I d also approve of a lede cite for the claim that they spend more than most