The Acquirers Podcast · Thursday, September 3, 2026
Matthew Sweeney highlights the importance of understanding why a business is cheap, focusing on discrepancies between quantitative financial screens and a qualitative businessperson's assessment. He cites companies investing heavily in R&D as an example, where current earnings might appear lower due to strategic spending, but future earnings power could be significantly higher.
“And, um, and the last one that I spend a lot of time on is understanding why something is cheap.”
“I do think that one of the areas of opportunity in the market today and over the last several years, and likely over the next several years as well, is kind of exploiting the gaps in what can be seen very quickly by a quantitative screener by looking at gap financials.”
“But like a quick example would be maybe a company is spending more in R&D right now, so then their earnings power looks like it's lower than it actually is, but in a couple of years from now, one, the spend can roll off.”