Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Data as a Quantifiable Asset

In a dinner conversation, Tony Jebara pointed out that machine learning is growing since companies --- beyond the internet companies in news ---- are increasingly thinking of the data they have as an asset, to be collected, analyzed widely, and used to make decisions; this is a change from the past where companies looked at data collection, storage and management as a cost, and only a few (sales, analysts) looked at data. This made me wonder: will accountants figure out how to price this asset and write it into the books of the companies (like goodwill, brand, and others)?

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3 Comments:

Anonymous vzn said...

its already being weighed into (stratospheric) IPO prices or company valuations, wink [facebook, twitter, etc]

2:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

or LNKD where the stock price is almost entirely based on the data they have.

3:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was more thinking about how an accountant (CFO) of a company will formally account for the value of the data in their books, for example, how does it appreciate/depreciate with time. What will be good accounting practices?

-- Metoo

10:50 PM  

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