Total company value.

Enterprise Value (EV) measures the total value of a company including debt and excluding cash - the price an acquirer would actually pay. Formula: EV = Market Cap + Total Debt + Minority Interest + Preferred Equity - Cash. EV is the proper denominator for valuation multiples (EV/EBITDA, EV/Revenue) because it includes all capital sources.

Example: company with 500M market cap, 200M debt, 50M cash. EV = 500M + 200M - 50M = 650M. EV/EBITDA at 10x EBITDA: company trades at multiple of 6.5x EV/EBITDA. Lower than the market cap multiple of 5x - includes the debt the acquirer would inherit.

Why EV matters more than market cap: two companies with identical market caps but different debt loads have very different acquisition costs. Apple with 3T market cap and net cash position has lower EV than market cap. Highly leveraged companies have EV much higher than market cap. Always use EV/EBITDA or EV/Revenue for cross-company comparisons - market cap multiples mislead when capital structures differ.

A worked example

Try the defaults: market capitalisation of 500,000,000, total debt of 200,000,000, cash & equivalents of 50,000,000, minority interest of 0. The tool returns 650,000,000.00. You can adjust any input and the result updates as you type — no submit button, no reload. That's the real power here: seeing how sensitive the output is to one or two assumptions.

What moves the number most

The result responds to Market Capitalisation, Total Debt, Cash & Equivalents, Minority Interest (optional), and Preferred Equity (optional). Not every input has equal weight. Flip one at a time toward extreme values to feel which ones move the needle most for your situation.

The formula behind this

EV = market cap + total debt + minority interest + preferred equity - cash & equivalents. Everything the calculator does is shown in the formula box below, so you can check the math against your own spreadsheet if you want.

Where this fits in planning

This is a "what-if" tool, not a forecast. Use it to test ideas before committing: what happens if the rate is 2% lower than hoped, what happens if you add five more years. The value is in the scenarios you run, not the single answer you get from the defaults.

What this doesn't capture

Steady-rate math ignores real-world volatility. Actual returns are lumpy; sequence-of-returns risk matters most in drawdown; fees and taxes drag on compound growth; and behaviour changes in drawdowns can reduce outcomes below the projection. Treat the number as one scenario, not a forecast.