[nknealk]

For those who have never read a 10K in their life, the SEC requires all companies who publish non-GAAP metrics to also (1) publish GAAP metrics more prominently than non-GAAP metrics and (2) publish a reconciliation on how they arrived at their non-GAAP measure from the published GAAP metrics.

Here’s a writeup of the SEC rules on non-GAAP metrics in earnings reports: https://www.protiviti.com/US-en/insights/sec-issues-guidance...

There’s a difference between what Enron did (ie. fraud) vs presenting alternative ways to measure business performance. If an investor thinks community adjusted EBITDA is a good metric to judge a business and then loses all their money, that’s on the investor. Even our most recent poster child of non-GAAP shenanigans publishes the GAAP numbers ahead of the non-GAAP measures (see eg. Page 111 which is the first mention of “adjusted EBITDA” presented below GAAP metrics vs page 21 on which the GAAP income statement is first published): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1533523/000119312519...