Here’s what you’ll see:

• Mean, Median, Harmonic Mean: Which is Best? (Bob Dohmeyer, ASA; Dr. Herbert Kierulff; Janae Castell, CVA). The authors make a case for which of these three measures is superior as an estimator of price.

• Scrutiny Heats Up on Valuations and Fairness Opinions in M&A Deals (BVR Editor). How to avoid trouble spots in the wake of a rash of court cases.

• New Research Into Private Company Multiples in the U.K. (BVR Editor). Excerpts of transaction data from 250 private-company transactions in over 40 industry categories.

• Book Review: The 2014 Valuation Handbook - Industry Cost of Capital (R. James Alerding, CPA/ABV, ASA). New resource improves on what had been published in the past for developing an industry cost of capital.

• Takeaways From Six Recent Business Valuation Cases (BVR Editor). BVR’s legal editor Sylvia Golden, Esq., and Jim Alerding, CPA/ABV, ASA, examine the main points from recent court cases.

• Expert Shares His Approach for Determining Reasonable Compensation (BVR Editor). An interview with Mark Lipis (Lipis Consulting), the expert the IRS retained in the Aries case in Tax Court.

• BVU Profiles: How Litigation Makes for a Better Valuator (BVR Editor). An interview with Nancy Czaplinski, CPA/ABV/CGMA, CFA, ASA (American Appraisal).

• Top 10 Noteworthy BV Cases of 2014 (BVR Editor). A rundown of significant decisions from federal and state courts.

To read these articles—as well as digests of the latest court cases—see the January 2015 issue of Business Valuation Update (subscription required).