[tomelgin]

Before you consider buying a company and selling off its assets, you have to realize that when you own a company you also own its debt, and that if you liquidate you have to pay off all that debt (unless you can pocket the cash and file for bankruptcy, not generally legal).

This info is publicly available and quite a bit more accurate that the Register's napkin math.

As of March 31, 2011 (end of BT's last fiscal year), they owned $23bln (that's USD) in "Property Plant & Equipment" (including all the copper in question) and held $35bln in liabilities.

[1]http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=BT+Balance+Sheet&annual

Also note: the price of copper was higher in March 2011 than it is now. http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/copper_historical_large.ht...