Tech transfer is an important function, however, tech transfer offices outside perhaps the top 15 or 20 in the US (public and private) are not profitable in terms of dollars. AUTM (tech transfer trade group) has extensive data on the subject.
Still I can't work up a tear for universities with large endowments when the top 10 universities sit pretty on 304 billion dollars out of 840 billion total, while charging insane and exponentially rising tuition fees.
