I have some big machine (a combine harvester). The machine is worth a lot more than the individual components (gears, screws and so on) that make it up. Similarly, Microsoft is worth more than all the office buildings, patents etc that make it up put together.
So, value is not just in the number of physical things, but in the arrangement of them. I suppose that, ideally, the price difference between a bunch of gears and screws and a combine harvester should be equal to the cost of paying someone to assemble those gears and screws into one. So the price difference between Microsoft the company and all its stuff should be equal to the cost of hiring a bunch of managers to turn a similar amount of stuff into another Microsoft. Put that way ignoring that “arrangement value” does seem a bit artificial.
I have some big machine (a combine harvester). The machine is worth a lot more than the individual components (gears, screws and so on) that make it up. Similarly, Microsoft is worth more than all the office buildings, patents etc that make it up put together.
So, value is not just in the number of physical things, but in the arrangement of them. I suppose that, ideally, the price difference between a bunch of gears and screws and a combine harvester should be equal to the cost of paying someone to assemble those gears and screws into one. So the price difference between Microsoft the company and all its stuff should be equal to the cost of hiring a bunch of managers to turn a similar amount of stuff into another Microsoft. Put that way ignoring that “arrangement value” does seem a bit artificial.