why is debt added to total enterprise value tev 
higher debt triggers a higher tev because it represents an added cost that must be paid by any would be acquirer can a company have a negative total enterprise value tev yes it is possible for a company to have more cash than its market value and debt in theory that would make it an attractive investment the bottom linetotal enterprise value tev is one of many useful tools to value companies and not just for m a purposes either this metric better enables investors to compare companies with different capital structures and get a greater sense of which one is potentially undervalued by the market 