#274 How to Value Brand Equity in an M&A Deal, Stevey Arroyo, Founder & Partner, The Brand Exit

#274 How to Value Brand Equity in an M&A Deal, Stevey Arroyo, Founder & Partner, The Brand Exit

From GrowCFO Show by Kevin Appleby

March 10, 2026 · 38 min

About this episode

This episode discusses the importance of valuing brand equity in M&A deals with insights from Stevey Arroyo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niLFK8PzZfA https://open.spotify.com/episode/2k0Q4tIQThBIQZ5cCfz5nq In today’s M&A landscape, the businesses that achieve premium valuations are rarely those with the best numbers alone. They are the ones with brands that command trust, preference, and pricing power. Yet, brand equity is still one of the least understood and least quantified assets in most deals, often buried in a vague goodwill line and ignored in negotiation. For CFOs, founders, and deal professionals, learning how to value brand equity in an M&A deal has become essential to avoiding underpriced exits and capturing the full economic value of what has been built over years, if not decades. In this episode of The GrowCFO Show, host Kevin Appleby tackles a topic that is rapidly becoming mission-critical in corporate transactions: how to value brand equity in an M&A deal. Traditional deal models lean heavily on EBITDA multiples, revenue, and tangible assets, often sweeping brands into a vague “goodwill” bucket. Yet buyers are truly paying for demand, pricing power, and confidence in future cash flows, all of which are heavily influenced by brand equity. Failing to…

People in this episode

Host: Kevin Appleby

Guest: Stevey Arroyo

Topics covered

  • M&A
  • brand equity
  • valuation
  • CFO
  • business strategy

Keywords

  • brand equity
  • M&A
  • valuation
  • goodwill
  • CFO

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Brand Exit

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