Finance texts offer theoretical frameworks for company valuations but theory and practice seldom line up.

All too often, when it comes to acquisitions, the purchaser pays too much. Last week there was a deal of discussion about the price paid by Facebook’s Mark Zucherberg for Whatsapp. The price was US$19bn and I was left wondering if the decimal point was in the wrong place. To put the price paid into some perspective, I am grateful to colleagues at Credit Suisse who have compiled a list of nine things that are cheaper:
1.Hubble Telescope $10bn
2.American Airlines $11bn
3.USS Ford Aircraft Carrier $13bn
4.Top 20 football clubs in the world $16bn
5.London Olympics $10.4bn
6.Clean water and sanitation for the entire planet $10bn
7.World music industry $16bn
8.Jamaica $15bn
9.Iceland $14bn
If it was up to me I might go for option 6; have paid US$1.9bn for Whatsapp and still have just over US$7bn to gamble with (oops, I meant invest)!