What does EBITDA stand for?

EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. This financial metric is widely used to assess a company's operating performance without the impacts of financial structuring, tax rates, and non-cash accounting items like depreciation and amortization.

The term emphasizes earnings derived from core business operations, making it a valuable tool for investors and analysts to evaluate profitability and operational efficiency. By excluding interest and taxes, analysts can compare companies across different tax jurisdictions and capital structures, while also eliminating the accounting effects of depreciation and amortization, which may vary significantly between companies depending on their capital expenditure policies.

The other options misidentify key components of the acronym. For instance, "debt" and "expenditure" are incorrect terms in this context, as EBITDA specifically focuses on earnings rather than debt levels or expenditure as a whole. This distinction clarifies the purpose of EBITDA as a measure of a company’s underlying profitability from its operations.