[captaincrisp]

The discount rate is doing a lot of work here. There is a discount rate such that we're not talking about shortsightedness. Getting it right is difficult. But as an example, how much would you buy an investment that pays a hundred dollars, guaranteed, next year for? Trivially, the discount rate includes at least the expected amount of inflation; it's not worth a dollar.

For assets line like IP you have to factor in how risky the returns are, how much investment you'd have to make to see them (e.g. making a movie), and overall strategy (do we want to be in that line of business).

All this to say - if you have IP that pays 10 million a year, you can value future returns on that IP in today's dollars. If someone offers you more than that to buy it, you should take the deal; you come out ahead.