This open access book discusses firm valuation, which is of interest to economists, particularly those working in finance. Firm valuation comes down to the calculation of the discounted cash flow, often only referred to by its abbreviation, DCF. There are, however, different coexistent versions, which seem to compete against each other, such as entity approaches and equity approaches. Acronyms are often used, such as APV (adjusted present value) or WACC (weighted average cost of capital), two concepts classified as entity approaches. This book explains why there are several procedures and whether they lead to the same result. It also examines the economic differences between the methods and indicates the various purposes they serve. Further it describes the limits of the procedures and the situations they are best applied to. The problems this book addresses are relevant to theoreticians and practitioners alike.

Author Biography

Lutz Kruschwitz is professor emeritus at the chair of banking and finance, the Free University of Berlin. He graduated in economics from this university. His research interests include investment and valuation theory. He is the author of several bestselling German finance textbooks. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Tuebingen and is an honorary professor at the University of Vienna. Andreas Loeffler studied Mathematics at the Leipzig University and the Academy of Science in Berlin. He obtained his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1993 and a second Ph.D. in Economics in 1995 from the University of Leipzig . From 2000 he is a tenured professor at the chair of banking and finance at the University of Hannover. Since 2006 he is the chair of banking and finance at Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 2008 he moved to Paderborn as a professor of finance and investment. Since 2011 he holds the chair of finance at the Free University of Berlin.