That's four times more than Lee got from his broker before the company launched its website. Until recently, turning idle capital assets into cash has not been easy. Typically, companies depreciate used or surplus equipment or donate it to charity for a tax write-off. But the longer it takes to unload second-hand equipment, the more the value of the equipment rusts away. Used heavy industrial equipment, which can take a long time to sell, rarely fetches more than 10 to 20 percent of its original cost when put on the block.
Computers depreciate even faster.
So they sit there. PCs depreciate at a rate of at least 1 percent a week. The founder of one cyber-exchange recalls meeting with a potential corporate client. I asked an executive how many computers the company had in mothballs. He said he didn't know.