The tv series Silicon Valley has a good episode where they discuss the importance of a start-up not having any revenue. Being pre revenue apparently means unlimited potential, with any level of revenue being bad, as you always have to grow it.

I have been in actual conversations where the topic was whether to avoid revenue to prevent being measured on it...

That show was very on the nose about a great many things.

Yeah. That's totally real. (But I get that it was also funny, and I loved that show.)

I don't exactly disagree. But the word "obvious" doesn't work very well during a bubble. Sure, yes, the current revenue doesn't justify the purchase price. But that doesn't mean that anything justifies the purchase price.

We can't work backward rationally from "this deal makes sense" and get to "here's why". Corporate acquisitions often don't work that way, even when there's no bubble. The price is often just not justified at all. By anything.

In many cases they're just capitalizing testosterone.

Yeah I'm with you, didn't mean to imply there was any sort of underlying wisdom or truth behind the choice. People just love to rationalize