Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition,   ISBN:9780471702184

Customer Rating: 

The contents of this book are absolute comprehensive
Step by step approach guiding you to thorough understanding.
Good structure and easy to read

One problem is a lack of step by step question, have to
buy another separate workbook for practice

Customer Rating: 

The best foundational text on understanding valuation for any business. Kenneth H Marks, lead author of The Handbook of Financing Growth: Strategies, Capital Structure, and M&A Transactions (Wiley Finance)

Customer Rating: 

I work for one of the largest banks in the US, and we use this book as a reference when we need to dig into the more arcane details of a project. If you do a lot of valuation work, this is a recommended text, but it is tome-like and a bit laborious to use, and I've found much of the advice it contains is rather ivory tower and not-so-practical in real world situations. If you are studying valuation theory, or do a lot of this work, particularly on publicly-held companies, you'll definitely want this textbook, though over time it might not be the one you reach for everyday. To accompany it, I would suggest also buying Horn's "Unlocking the Value of a Business" for everyday use, which is a more concise and user-friendly manual on privately-held company valuation, with a more lighthearted, less-academic tone, and Horn's credentials as an acquisitions dealmaker yield advice that is decidedly more practical.

Customer Rating: 

As a management consultant, this book bridges between management activities and financial performance.It makes sense of an organizations' day-to-day activities, from the investors'/organization owners' point of view.

Customer Rating: 

This is a good intro to give the basics of valuation for "old economy" businesses. It determines the valuation of companies based almost exclusively on their cash flow over the previous few years (i.e., 3, 5 and 7 year periods) to the analysis. Unfortunately it ignores (completely) too many issues that play an extremely important role in valuation. For example, the quality, background, knowledge of management, the products the company manufactures, the markets for these products, macroeconomic conditions, intellectual property, market position (i.e., oligopolistic? Is entry/exit difficult in the industry?). Not one of these issues is even touched upon!!! The authors seem to be implying that these issues are irrelevant!! Only the cash flow over the previous few years forecast forward (i.e., discounted for present value) matters according to the book!!! Perhaps this type of mentality explains why the overwhelming majority of mergers and acquistions fail!!!!

If you are looking purely for a way to use past cash flows to determine a company's "value" this is the book for you. If you are looking for a discussion of just about any other factor affecting valuation, forget it.