system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: When a company talks about how much money they made, "in terms of EBITDA", what do they mean? Why does EBITDA matter?
gpt
EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. It's just a fancy way of saying how much they made before subtracting unavoidable costs/obligations not to be confused with the costs of running a business since you could theoretically cut costs like employee salaries or manufacturing costs.

It's just a way to show how profitable the company could be. That's why there is a distinction between a company's revenue and profit. One describes how much money the company made (i.e. sales) but the other is how much goes into the pockets of owners/shareholders.