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Strategic vs Financial Buyer

The two structurally distinct buyer types in M&A. STRATEGIC buyers are operating companies that pay for synergies (cost reductions, revenue cross-sell) on top of the standalone business value. FINANCIAL buyers are private-equity sponsors that price standalone cash flow and constrain leverage to debt-market capacity. Strategic buyers typically pay 2-4 turns of EBITDA more than financial buyers for the same target, which is why precedent sets should be bucketed by buyer type before computing a median.

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