and the Process for the Valuation of a Closely Held Business (Part 1 of 2) Assessing shareholder value for either publicly held or privately held companies are two sides of the same coin. The U.S. capital markets have undergone significant changes in the past several years. This development in turn has had an impact on how these two types of companies are valued. Valuing public companies can be rather straightforward; valuing a closely held or private company is more challenging. In this series, the author will explore some of the methodologies available for valuing a closely held—or private—business.