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Countless departing Yahoos tell me the company's worthless. I dismissed that as disgruntled ex-employee talk, until I started doing some math. After rallying in October, Yahoo shares are trading near a 52-week low, with its market cap around $32 billion. Not exactly worthless, right? Ah, but that includes the value of Yahoo's investments.

Yahoo Japan, of which Yahoo owns a third, is worth $25 billion, putting Yahoo's stake in it at nearly $9 billion. Alibaba.com, a Chinese e-commerce company in which Yahoo directly owns a 10 percent stake, is worth $17 billion. Tack another $1.7 billion on. That figure doesn't include Alibaba.com's parent company, Alibaba Group, which runs Yahoo China and in which Yahoo owns a currently illliquid 40 percent stake. Estimates of its value are running between $8 billion and $16 billion. Yahoo has other investments like G-Market. Add it up, and you realize that Yahoo's wholly owned operations in America and Europe are valued by the market at next to nothing, especially compared to the multiples other Web companies are getting.

Good thing Yahoo president Sue Decker has a Wall Street background, because at this rate, she might as well be running a mutual fund.