Book Value of Fixed Assets

Cannington, Inc., designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers and related software. The following information was taken from a recent annual report of Cannington industries:

Property, Plant, and Equipment (in millions):
	Current Year		Preceding Year
Land and buildings	$515,390		$298,926
Machinery, equipment, and internal-use software	489,621		386,543
Office furniture and equipment	77,309		67,001
Other fixed assets related to leases	623,622		469,005
Accumulated depreciation and amortization	(654,545)		(546,313)

a. Compute the book value of the fixed assets for the current year and the preceding year.

Current year book value	$
Preceding year book value	$

b. Would you normally expect the book value of fixed assets to increase or decrease during the year?