“The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth.”
translated from François de La Roche Foucauld, French writer of moralistic maxims
(1613-1680)
As you may know, softwares and applications are intangible assets and thus, they can contribute to a company (often start-up) capital or they can (must!) be estimated when negotiating with investors. Or simply, you have to transfer an asset to another company and want to integrate it in your books.
These intellectual property rights differ from others as music, videos, trademarks or patents. They are subject to maintenance and constant improvement, infringements are more difficult to detect, but they still have to deal with market and ROI issues. Therefore it is quite difficult to come to a consistent value, which has to be realistic and as far as possible, indiscutable.
In order to clarify your own appreciation of those particular assets, I share in this short view the criteria I use when I have to value a software or an application (here is the case of a soft already commercialized, or dedicated to be soon). I hope it will help you get a better idea regarding the hidden value of your developments.
Obviously each software is specific and so, each valuation too.
