Correspondence: David Reed, E-mail: david.editor@btinternet.com

¹is a business writer and Editor, Data Strategy.

Received August 2006; Revised August 2006.

Abstract

If you were valuing your business, how would you account for the gap between its physical assets and the capital value? Goodwill is no longer seen as enough to explain why many companies are so highly prized. Instead, there is a growing trend towards the valuation of intangible assets. This paper outlines how a database — the repository of customer and prospect data which is the engine of commercial relationships — can be defined, valued, protected and turned into a new tax-efficient asset.