Valuation is the process used to determine how much a business or any other asset is worth. Valuing companies is important because, in corporate finance as in our daily lives, you never want to pay more for something than it’s worth. Fair market value (FMV) thus determines the structure of a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deal, pricing of shares of a company in an initial public offering, or how much equity in a startup is worth.
Because accurate valuation requires projecting future income generated by the company or asset in question, however, this process can be challenging and unavoidably involves uncertainty. It is particularly difficult when attempting to determine the value of a startup, which by definition lacks the track record of financial statements of more established companies.
Traditional methods of valuing companies use classic discounted cash flow analysis to build a simple model of future revenues and determine their present value based on the time value of money. More sophisticated valuation methodologies use statistical techniques such as linear regression analysis and/or simulations using the Monte Carlo method to better incorporate sources of risk and uncertainty.