# Platform company

The first business a consolidator buys, the base its add-ons join.

It explains the two-speed market a [searcher](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/searcher) competes in. A platform buyer pays up for the anchor, then buys smaller add-ons at lower multiples, so the business you are bidding on can be worth more to a consolidator building around it than to a standalone buyer.

In numbers: A consolidator pays 6x for a $3M [EBITDA](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/ebitda) platform and 4x for a $500,000 add-on, so $18M and $2M. The combined $3.5M of EBITDA is worth $21M at the platform's multiple.

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/platform-company
Not dated: A definition is editorial: what a term means, why it matters, and an example. None of it reads a source that can go stale, so there is no date to take and a stamped one would be the build time wearing a costume.

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt