Guide
How much is my company worth? A US answer, sourced
Updated
There is a published answer, narrower than most websites suggest, provided you are careful which population you ask about.
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How this calculator works
- The default multiple is 5.5x EBITDA, the median reported for deals in the $5M to $50M band by the IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse survey for Q2 2025. It was compiled from 272 completed transactions reported by 326 business brokers and M&A advisors (IBBA and M&A Source, Market Pulse Q2 2025).
- The same survey reported a median of 2.3x for businesses selling under $500,000.
- The public company comparison is 16.95x EBITDA: the total market EV/EBITDA for US firms with positive EBITDA excluding financials. It comes from NYU Stern's Enterprise Value Multiples by Sector dataset, data as of January 2026 across 5,994 firms (NYU Stern, Damodaran). Including financials the same dataset reports 19.73x.
- Those two figures measure different things and that is the point of showing both. One is what listed companies trade at; the other is what privately held businesses actually sold for. A private business is not a small listed company, and the gap between the two lines is the combined effect of size, illiquidity, customer concentration and owner dependence.
- Main Street and lower middle market are the survey's own bands: Main Street is up to $2M and the lower middle market is $2M to $50M. Below roughly $2M, deals are usually quoted on SDE (seller's discretionary earnings, the owner's total benefit), not EBITDA. So a multiple from one basis cannot be applied to the other.
- Surplus cash and debt are treated the way a buyer treats them. Enterprise value is what the business is worth; then cash is added and debt-like items are deducted to reach what reaches shareholders. Deferred consideration, earn-outs and working capital adjustments are not modelled and routinely move the final figure.
- This is an indication, not a valuation. It applies no adjustment for sector, growth, margin, customer concentration or owner dependence, and a real valuation is mostly the work of making those adjustments.
Two datasets, two very different answers
The number for a privately held US business is not the number for a listed one, and that gap is where almost every unrealistic expectation comes from.
NYU Stern's Enterprise Value Multiples by Sector dataset, compiled by Aswath Damodaran with data as of January 2026, covers 5,994 listed US firms. It reports a total market EV/EBITDA of 19.73x, or 16.95x excluding financials.
The IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse survey covers completed sales of privately held businesses up to $50M. Its Q2 2025 edition, the 53rd, drew on 272 transactions reported by 326 brokers and advisors. It reported a median of 5.5x EBITDA in the $5M to $50M band and 2.3x for businesses selling under $500,000.
Both are credible and both are current. Quoting either as the multiple, without saying which population it describes, leaves an owner with a number three to seven times away from any offer they will receive.
Which band you are actually in
The survey's own split is Main Street up to $2M and lower middle market from $2M to $50M, quoted on different bases. Below roughly $2M, deals are priced on SDE, the seller's discretionary earnings: the owner's total benefit including their own salary. Above it, EBITDA: earnings after paying a market-rate manager to do the owner's job.
That distinction is not academic. For an owner-operated business, one trading year can produce an SDE of $400,000 and an EBITDA of $250,000. Applying an EBITDA multiple to an SDE figure inflates the answer by more than half before any other error.
What moves you inside the range
The published median is a midpoint, not a prediction. What moves a specific business up or down it is mostly not the sector: it is customer concentration, owner dependence, recurring revenue and the quality of the numbers themselves.
The Q1 2026 survey gives one measure of how much competition helps: 83% of deals over $5 million attracted at least three offers and 18% attracted ten or more. A business with one interested buyer is priced by that buyer. A business with three is priced by the market.
Treat the output as a bracket
Run the calculator at the private median and again at your own multiple, and treat the distance between them as the negotiation. Then subtract what will not reach you: debt, transaction fees, and any consideration deferred or contingent on an earn-out.
The figure that matters to an owner is after-tax cash on completion, and it is routinely 30% or more below the headline enterprise value once those are taken off.