If a company finds $100, what specific effect does this have on its Enterprise Value?

The correct understanding regarding the effect of finding $100 on a company's Enterprise Value (EV) is that the EV remains unchanged. Enterprise Value is calculated as the total value of a firm's operating assets, which is essentially the market capitalization plus total debt, minus cash and cash equivalents. When a company finds cash, this increases its cash reserves, but because EV is defined to subtract these cash assets, the overall calculation for EV is not affected by an increase in cash.

In this framework, the cash can be thought of as a non-operational asset; therefore, if the company were to find additional cash, while its equity value might increase (potentially affecting market capitalization if this cash were viewed favorably by investors), the Enterprise Value, which aims to represent the value of the firm's operations, does not change because the value of operational assets remains the same.

This understanding emphasizes the principle that Enterprise Value is focused on the core operations of the business, taking into account both debts and available cash, leading to the conclusion that the total Enterprise Value remains unchanged despite the cash increase.