Dark Side of Valuation, The: Valuing Young, Distressed, and Complex Businesses, Third edition

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Shooting Stars: Valuing Growth Companies

In the preceding chapter, we looked at the estimation challenges associated with valuing young companies. One of the issues we confronted was the question of survival, because many young companies fail early in their lives. But what about firms that make it through the test of competition and become successful businesses? This chapter looks at a subset of these firms that become growth companies. A few of these firms stay private, but many of them enter public markets, partly because of their need for capital and partly to allow owners to cash in on their success.

This chapter examines the issues we face when valuing growth companies. Many of the concerns we saw with young companies—short and volatile ...