Eliminate all this stuff, and maybe you're not paying 54 times earnings.

"We were paid about 20 times earnings," he said.

With the Dow topping 3,264 last week, a record, investors are paying 32.3 times earnings.

These folks are happy to pay 200 times earnings for America Online.

So investors are willing to pay only a modest 15 times current earnings for Intel shares.

So she is willing to pay as much as 20 times earnings for a company.

But if it does not happen, it will be hard to justify paying 23 times 1995 earnings.

Since then, several publishers have not been paid their second quarter 2008 earnings.

For big buyout deals - those valued at $500 million or more - firms on average paid seven times earnings in 1994.

"If it's a 25 percent grower, and you have questions, you want to pay only 17 or 18 times earnings."