IndyMac’s new value: not enough to pay Rush Limbaugh

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IndyMac shares are free-falling today, last quoted at 39 cents per share, as investors flee the troubled California thrift. That gives the company a market value of $39 million (the math is easy: 100 million shares outstanding), which is not even enough to pay Rush Limbaugh’s salary for a year. The New York Times values Limbaugh’s new contract at $50 million per year.

IndyMac still bills itself as the largest savings and loan in Los Angeles, but it is shrinking rapidly. And with a market value of just $39 million, IndyMac finds itself at the very low end of high finance. At that value, IndyMac is worth ...

-- Enough to produce about 24 minutes of the Will Smith box office hit ‘Hancock,’ which had a reported production budget of $150 million. Trouble is, the movie is 92 minutes long.
-- Enough to pay Tiger Woods for about four months. Sports Illustrated estimates Woods’ earnings at $127 million per year.
-- Exactly enough to buy this trophy house in La Jolla, an 11,000-square-foot ‘architectural masterpiece’ perched on an oceanside cliff. Trouble is, IndyMac would have no money left over for closing costs.
-- Enough to buy Bill Davis Racing, which Forbes values at $36 million, making it the 14th-most valuable team in NASCAR. The most valuable team, Hendrick Motorsports, is way out of IndyMac’s budget, valued at $335 million.