Meet Santa – the largest toy distributor in the world, international man of mystery, and one of the most recognized celebrities of all time. This guy’s a legend.
I haven’t seen him on an episode of cribs or on the Fortune’s list of billionaires, but the guy’s gotta be worth a ton, right? Buried below the north pole there must be an army of elves just counting all his cash… kinda like Vegas casinos!
In an attempt to unravel the real mystery, calculating santa’s net worth, I’ve come up with a few points of interest in a very vague scenario. Read on to learn how much the big jolly elf keeps hidden under his bed.
Inventory
All the toys and gifts that are sitting in the warehouse before Christmas Eve. Since about 2.1 billion people around the world celebrate Christmas, and the average amount spent on Christmas could be estimated at $50 (American’s alone will spend over $400 this year). One could say that Santa’s inventory is approximately the multiplication of the two.
Let’s say that the inventory value is about half the sales price that is spent. That puts Santa’s inventory value at about $52.5 billion.
Brand Equity
Coca Cola and Pepsi would die for this amount of brand equity! Santa is an international superstar that is instantly recognizable, lovable, and admired by millions of kids around the world. Santa’s judgment of naughty or nice is one of the most sought after approvals! Not only that, he’s got a monopoly on the Christmas market.
If santa were to sell his business based on it’s marketing value and brand equity, we could say it might be worth the value of Christmas income yearly at approximately:
Brand Equity Value: $210 Billion
Land
Location, Location, Location – The big man in the red suit probably has one of the worse locations in the world! Living in a place covered in snow and ice isn’t exactly the idea of paradise for most. Although it’s in an area that can be used for shipping routes, there isn’t even a landmass there. Not only that, it’s projected that the north pole may melt in the next 50 years. Not exactly a great real estate investment.
Land Value: $0
Patents
Santa has a ton of sweet toys and tools. Think about his sleigh, his super insulated Santa fortress, and the powder he created to make reindeer fly. Being a regular renaissance man I wouldn’t be suprised to see some more tricks up his sleeve as well. These patents are obviously very hard to calculate, but if you’ve got flying powder dust, you’ve got some interested investors.
Estimated Patent Value $5 Billion.
So How much is Santa’s Net Worth?
It’s not looking good for the jolly big guy. Whys that? Santa’s got a cash flow problem, big time!
Although his stuff is worth a lot, he doesn’t have any income to offset his inventory costs. If he could sell his patents, his monopoly on Christmas, and maybe find some sucker to purchase the north pole for a few cold million, he may be able to settle all the debts he owes for 2,000 years of giving away inventory!
We still need to make some calculations, but the big guy just can’t keep giving stuff away!
How would you calculate Santa’s Net Worth?
What options does Santa have before he goes bankrupt? Trademarks perhaps?
***I realize my calculations are horrifically off the mark, but this was a “just for fun” article.
For all of you celebrating Christmas this year, have a very Merry Christmas, or as they say in Hawaii:
Mele Kalikimaka!
Photos from Bill Barber and CRN
