Enterprise Multiple

The name given for the argument common among Star Trek fans about who would win in a starship battle between Captains Kirk, Picard, and Archer.

Also, in finance, the term refers to a ratio used to figure out the value of a company.

Take a company's EBITDA (an alternative earnings figure that basically measures the company's cash flow). Compare this to the company's enterprise value (the amount the total company is worth; fundamentally, the market value of its equity plus its amount of debt...the amount it would take to buy the company if you were just going to write a check at current market values). The number you get is the enterprise multiple.

Once you have this number, you can compare valuations of different companies. You can see if the market places a higher value on a $1 of EBITDA at Company A versus a $1 of EBITDA at Company B. Maybe this higher valuation is reasonable...like, Company A is growing significantly faster, so it makes sense to have a higher enterprise multiple.