That article is making a different mistake. It is looking at market cap versus total assets. That isn't a very good measure and does not mean investors place

That article is making a different mistake. It is looking at market cap versus total assets. That isn't a very good measure and does not mean investors place negative value on the core business. Yahoo's book value is only about $27B, which is the amount that would be left if the company were liquidated today (notwithstanding liquidation costs). Since their price/book ratio is greater than 1 it means investors do put value on the future business, albeit not very much.