This is really hard to believe. This time, it’s the fourth edition. A lot has happened since 1998 when the first edition of this book was published. I was going to say that I am like a bottle of fine wine that keeps getting better with age, but those of you who know me or have bought earlier editions of this book know that I keep getting older. I will leave it for you to decide if I am getting any better with age. In the meanwhile, since you purchased this book, keep reading. I may sound like a broken record (or I guess for those of you who are too young to know what a record is, a scratched CD), but I keep saying, “This is just what we need, another book on business valuation.” Years ago, there were only a limited number of books on this topic—mostly finance texts. Today, you cannot read everything that is being published unless you have no life. Oh gee, that’s me. Anyway, for those of you with a limited life, there are definitely some books on this topic that are worth reading. I can no longer list only two or three books that are my favorites because so many good books on this topic have been published over the last several years that the list has grown too much. I have included many references to these books throughout this edition, so you should have no problem figuring out which ones I like.

这真的很难相信。这次是第四版。自从1998年这本书的第一版出版以来，发生了很多事情。我本想说的是，我就像一瓶美酒，随着年龄的增长而越来越好，但你们中认识我或购买过这本书早期版本的人都知道我在不断变老。我将留给你决定我是否随着年龄的增长而好转。同时，既然你买了这本书，就继续读吧。我可能听起来像是一个破纪录（或者我想对于那些还太年轻不知道什么是唱片的人来说，一张刮痕累累的CD），但我一直在说，“这正是我们需要的，另一本关于商业估价的书。”多年前，关于这个主题的书籍数量有限，大多是金融类书籍。今天，除非你没有生命，否则你无法阅读所有正在出版的东西。哦，天哪，是我。不管怎样，对于那些生命有限的人来说，肯定有一些关于这个主题的书值得一读。我再也不能只列出两三本我最喜欢的书了，因为在过去的几年里，关于这个主题的好书已经出版了太多，以至于这个名单增长得太多了。我在这一版本中引用了很多这些书，所以你应该可以很容易地找出我喜欢哪一本。