Shows how much would be left if a company is closed and sell all assets and pay all liabilities immediately."? and also there's another informal term for that, which is called "breakup value". Book value records assets and liabilities at their acquisition cost at the date of acquisition allowing for depreciation on certain depreciating assets, which is not necessarily what you might yield if you tried to sell all those assets and liquidate liabilities. Once you've squared away the different definitions, the question will be then becomes if you believe that the only important measure is knowing what the assets are worth when liquidating, do you care about book value or even market value, and why?