If you've received a letter of intent from a DSO, you've seen the term EBITDA. You may have nodded along as your broker explained it. You may have accepted the number your accountant produced without fully understanding how it was derived.

This matters more than almost anything else in your trans...

You got the letter of intent. The number looks right. The buyer's team has been professional, the process has moved quickly, and everyone keeps telling you this is a strong deal.

Then the Asset Purchase Agreement arrives — three hundred pages of legal language — and somewhere in Article 6 is the ...