Whether a deal <em>raises</em> or lowers the acquirer's earnings per share — the first quantitative screen on an M&A transaction.
Buying a business at one valuation multiple and selling it at a higher one, capturing return from the <em>re-rating</em> itself rather than from earnings growth.
The blended cost of a company's debt and equity, weighted by their share of the capital structure — the <em>discount rate</em> used to value its future cash flows.
The value created when two combined businesses are worth more together than apart — usually from cost savings, and more speculatively from <em>revenue gains</em>.
The valuation multiple paid to acquire a business — most often <em>EV / EBITDA</em> — that sets the price basis the entire deal return is measured against.
Valuing a business by the multiples its publicly traded peers trade at — a <em>relative</em> valuation that prices a company against the market, not its cash flows.