EBITDA can be used to make any company look great. Remember the original dotcoms? Their EBITDA looked stunning. It's the reason why so many people chucked cash at them. They never saw that cash again.
Harrogate - you don't know what you are talking about. Dotcoms never had positive earnings of any shape or form, let alone EBITDA - they were sold on the future growth story.
The controversy over EBITDA is the elimination of a necessary charge for machinery etc from earnings, making the earnings less meaningful.