The buyer’s glossary

The terms you meet on a listing, in plain English. Every price on Acquisiteur is quoted in these units — this is what they mean and where sellers dress them up.

• MultipleA multiple is the ratio of a business’s sale price to its annual profit — a business earning $50k a year that sells for $150k sold at a 3× multiple.
• SDE (Seller’s Discretionary Earnings)SDE is a business’s profit after adding back the owner’s salary and one-off or personal expenses — the true cash flow a single owner-operator takes home.
• EBITDAEBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation — a profit measure used for larger businesses where no single owner’s salary dominates.
• MRR / ARRMRR is monthly recurring revenue and ARR is its annual form (MRR × 12) — the predictable subscription revenue that makes SaaS worth more than one-off sales.
• TTM (Trailing Twelve Months)TTM means the most recent twelve months of results — the window used to value a business so that seasonality and a single good month cannot distort the figure.
• Add-backAn add-back is an expense added back to profit when calculating SDE because it is the owner’s pay, a one-off, or a personal cost the buyer will not inherit.
• ChurnChurn is the rate at which customers or revenue leave over a period — the leak a subscription business has to keep refilling, and the number that decides whether MRR is real.
• Due diligenceDue diligence is the check a buyer runs before wiring money — verifying the financials, traffic and ownership a listing claims, and finding the risks it does not mention.