Well sure, lawsuits happen all the time, but a material lawsuit may be 1 off. If we use Sami’s example, the company probably does not intend on a lawsuit of that magnitude to occur again (hopefully have taken remediate action to prevent in the future), so they would not bake that into their ‘normalized’ EBITDA - leading to an adjustment.
@BoringBiz_ Yes, if you have a long investment horizon (ie. target date fund in 20+ years) then it is a no brainer. I also imagine these would be accredited funds that would make their ways into the 401ks (hopefully).
Great thread - one alternative worth considering is selling to an ESOP. While these transactions don’t typically result in 100% cash at close, they can address many of the concerns raised here—especially when it comes to succession planning, maintaining the firm’s legacy, and keeping employees motivated through ownership. In some cases, an ESOP may even provide a more sustainable and rewarding exit than a traditional sale.
@thesamparr I work in the investment banking space and deal with these financial analysis topics on the reg. Hmu via DM and we can jump on a call I can try to break down concepts as simple as possible.
I like the idea of investing in your expenses. One thing - EBITDA is a great metric and highly used for valuation purposes as a proxy for operating cash flow, but what about investing in good companies with high revenue and low EBITDA? I’d argue that you can buy at a discount and then work on improving operations and margins. Lots of companies that make a lot of money but don’t know how to manage expenses. Also depends on how much time your willing to invest.
@Patticus True. It’s probably less about actually having all those days off and more the flexibility and option to take time off when you want and not be confined by “X” number of PTO hours. Reasonable people know that you shouldn’t overdo it.