M&Apedia is an editorially independent reference work on mergers and acquisitions, sponsored by Main Street Wealth. This page documents how articles are written, sourced, reviewed and corrected, and how the sponsor relationship is structured so that what you read here is shaped by editorial judgment, not commercial preference.
Editorial independence
M&Apedia is sponsored by Main Street Wealth, an M&A advisory firm focused on home-services businesses. Sponsorship covers the cost of producing the encyclopedia and allows us to keep it free and ad-free. It does not give the sponsor pre-publication review of articles, the right to edit published content, or the ability to set editorial direction beyond agreeing to the topic scope (mergers and acquisitions).
Where Main Street Wealth is referenced inside articles or on the resources page, it is identified as the site sponsor. The About page describes the relationship in full and discloses the commercial structure.
Authorship and review
Every article carries a visible byline naming the author, the author's affiliation, the publication date and the date of last review. Author bios are linked from the byline and document each writer's credentials, areas of expertise and conflicts of interest.
All articles are reviewed by at least the author before publication; longer pillar pieces and the annual Multiples Report are also reviewed by a second practitioner. Reviewers are named in the JSON-LD reviewedBy field and, where they differ from the author, in a visible "Reviewed by" line below the byline. Articles are reviewed at least annually, and more frequently when underlying standards (IFRS, U.S. GAAP, antitrust thresholds, tax rules) change.
Sources and citations
Articles draw on a combination of (1) standards-setting authorities — IFRS Foundation, FASB, U.S. SEC, FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division, EU Commission DG COMP; (2) widely used corporate-finance reference works — Investopedia, the Corporate Finance Institute, Wall Street Prep, Aswath Damodaran (NYU Stern), and the practitioner publications of the Big Four; and (3) practitioner experience contributed by the author and reviewers. Every article ends with a numbered References & further reading section. Inline footnotes use ^[N] markers that link to the corresponding entry.
We avoid citing other tertiary sources (such as wikis or paraphrased blog posts) as primary references and reach for the standard or original publication when possible. Where a claim cannot be sourced to a standard or a peer-reviewed publication, it is qualified accordingly.
Update cadence
Articles are reviewed at least annually and updated whenever a material change makes existing content inaccurate. Substantive updates increase the visible last reviewed date. Cosmetic edits (typos, link cleanup) do not. The annual Home-Services M&A Multiples Report is refreshed annually with quarterly directional updates as market conditions warrant.
Corrections
If you find a factual error or an outdated reference, please email [email protected] with the URL and a description of the issue. Material corrections (those that change the substance of a claim) update the article and are noted in the article's review log; minor corrections (clarifying language, broken links) are made silently. We do not retroactively edit historical claims to align with current opinions.
AI use and content licensing
Articles are written by named human authors. AI tools may be used for drafting outlines, copy-editing and consistency checking; final wording and judgments are the author's. The site opts in to AI training, indexing and AI-input use via the robots.txt Content-Signal (ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes). The annual Multiples Report is licensed under CC BY 4.0. All other content on M&Apedia may be quoted with attribution.
What this site is not
M&Apedia is an educational reference. It is not investment, legal, tax or accounting advice and is not a substitute for an engagement with a qualified advisor. Specific transactions depend on facts, jurisdiction, parties and timing in ways that no general reference can capture. If you are considering a transaction, retain qualified counsel.
Contact
Editorial: [email protected]
Corrections: as above
Sponsor: Main Street Wealth (relationship described here)
Last reviewed: 2026-06-16