From a CIO.com article on the cost of a lost laptop
FTA: "According to Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a lost or stolen laptop PC is more than $49,000. Most of this cost is due to the exposure of sensitive data." That is bad, but not entirely unexpected. The hardware/software is 1-2% of that cost. The rest is the 'clean-up'.
but the Important Point is this:
"The study reports that if a company becomes aware of the loss the same day it happens, the average cost is only $8,950. If it takes more than a week to discover the loss, the cost jumps to an average of $115,849."
That is a serious chunk of change. Almost 13 times as much in just one week...