How numbers are labelled

Deal Intelligence methodology

Every material figure is disclosed, calculated from named inputs, analysis, or undisclosed. The desk does not mint an EV to complete a graphic.

Published 16 Sep 2026 · Updated 22 Sep 2026 · Method changes only

Deal Intelligence is not investment, legal, tax or accounting advice. Every material fact is taken from documents that are already public, or from arithmetic on those documents. Read the independence and disclaimer before you treat a number as something you can act on.

Numbers are where Deal Intelligence is easiest to get wrong, and where the desk is strictest. A figure is either disclosed, calculated from identified disclosed inputs, labelled as analysis, or marked undisclosed. There is no fifth bucket called "everyone knows".

Never infer a disclosed value where the source does not provide one. Never back-solve an enterprise value from a share price and a stake, then print it as if the buyer announced EV. If Acquiry does that sum in a notebook to see scale, and it is not in the issuer materials, it stays out of the page or it goes in as labelled arithmetic with every input named.

Equity value, enterprise value, cash-free debt-free, locked-box, and "headline consideration including milestones" are different objects. The article uses the issuer's object. If the issuer gave a per-share cash price and a controlling stake, that is a per-share cash price and a controlling stake. It is not permission to mint a group EV.

Contingent consideration is contingent. Earnouts, CVRs, milestone pots and "up to" figures are described as the conditions the issuer named. Adding them to the upfront and calling the sum the price is a common wire-service shortcut. Deal Intelligence only does that sum when it is clearly arithmetic, and it says so.

Adjusted EBITDA, EBITDAC, adjusted free cash flow and similar measures retain the company's definition, including the adjustments the company lists. Valuation multiples name the denominator. "20x earnings" is not used when the denominator is Adjusted EBITDA. "20.0x" is the multiple format. "20 times" and "20X" are not, unless a sentence cannot land without the words.

If the company has not published a figure the multiple would need, there is no multiple. The desk does not borrow a broker's estimate and strip the source.

Amounts are USD unless stated. Body copy uses $7.7 billion / $396 million / $32.50 per share. Tables may condense to $7.7bn / $396m. Sterling, euro, won, yen and Australian dollars stay in their symbols when that is how the filing reads, with a USD translation only if the issuer or a regulator provided one, or if a dated FX print is named as Acquiry's conversion.

Machine-readable dates use <time datetime>. JSON-LD uses the same ISO dates as the visible byline. A "today" in a filing is the issuer's today, not ours.

Announced is not completed. Language matches the current public status: rumoured, reported, announced, signed, approved, completed or terminated. A signed take-private is a take-private agreement until it closes. "Acquired" in the past tense is reserved for deals the issuer has said closed. Regulatory clearance is not close unless the issuer said the deal closed.

Rounding can make an identity approximate. When a table of percentages should sum to 100 and sums to 99 or 101 because of rounding, the article says so. We do not quietly nudge a disclosed number so the graphic looks cleaner.

A chart is a picture of numbers that already exist in a table or a filing. The data sits in a visible table or in a details sibling, not only inside a canvas. Diagrams that show structure (a holding waterfall, a stack, a route to market) must match the prose. They do not get decorative telemetry, fake user counts, or a purchase multiple nobody filed.

← Public sourcesIndependence →