In U.S. M&A, target directors are effectively required to consider third-party financial analyses and valuations, summarized in a “fairness opinion,” before accepting a takeover offer. Critics argue that these valuations are not relevant for public companies, which can assess the...

This paper provides an overview of valuation multiples in M&A advisory. I review prior literature and legal controversies and the theoretical basis for their role. I then standardize all the advisor multiples available in SDC Platinum along four dimensions, and report rich descriptive statistics...

I study how financial-statement information is used in valuation in a contentious, institutional setting: M&A valuation advisory disclosures. M&A advisors predominantly reference multiples of reported (trailing) summary accounting measures, despite the common knowledge among the parties in this...

In recent decades, M&A advisors have primarily and increasingly used enterprise-value (EV) multiples in the valuations they provide to directors and shareholders as benchmarks for valuing their shares. This contrasts with equity analysts, who predominantly use direct equity-value multiples...