In response to last week’s article recommending a “caveat” when using public company data to value private firms, Rob Schlegel responds:

Although there may be some exceptions, I'd argue that public market data is always relevant to establish basic economic and industry trends, and is helpful in selecting discount rates and adjustments as well as marketability and minority discounts for privately held companies. Beyond a bit of fiddling with numbers, we business appraisers have a fundamental duty to understand market dynamics relating to the subject companies in our assignments.