Because if all shares of the company is valued at X, and the tangible assets of the company are valued at Y, and X < Y, then isn't Yahoo's stock objectively undervalued? I'm not some sophisticated investor, I just buy index funds, but isn't this kind of objective valuation of companies the basis of value investing a-la Warren Buffet?
But you can't buy 100 shares of Yahoo! stock then turn 24 of those shares into Alibaba stock. Just because Yahoo! owns a 24% stake in Alibaba doesn't mean your ownership of Yahoo! is fungible with ownership of Alibaba.
No, the discount is due to the fact that the market believes there is a risk that Mayer will misuse the money. More generally, no, you are not smarter than the market.
