Hidden Assets

"Come ‘n listen to a story ‘bout a man named Jed…poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed…"

Remember them? Beverly Hillbillies? Never watched Nick at Nite? Ah well, ask your parents.

Yeah, so Jed owned 40 acres and a mule and had been farming, well, forever. Then, one day, he was shootin’ a racoon...when up from the ground came a bubblin’ crude. Oil, that is. Texas T. Black Gold.

Yeah, Jed stumbled on an oil, er...gold mine. And hundreds of millions of dollars later, that hidden asset got him a reallllly nice swimmin’ hole in 90210. Hidden assets happen in corporate America all the time.

A patent for flying robot cars that the company didn't realize it had, which suddenly became relevant when “tracking drones” became, like, a Thing. Broadcast rights attached to a TV station acquisition, where new technology lets cell phone spectrum clamp on and produce extremely clear phone calls. That asset was hidden. Now...not so much.

A change in tax law, such that the huge tax losses in the bankrupt company acquired for scrap are now suddenly a ginormous tax deduction. The acquirer won’t pay taxes now for 2 years because of this acquisition.

Assets don’t remain hidden very long.

Usually, companies have to disclose where they find value, if for no other reason than that it usually gooses their stock price. And everyone likes being rich, right?

Okay, so some people’s idea of rich is having 80 acres and two mules...