  We have studied the electronic structure of two Chevrel-phase compounds,
Mo$_6$Se$_{7.5}$ and Sn$_{1.2}$Mo$_6$Se$_{7.5}$, by combining photoemission
spectroscopy and band-structure calculations. Core-level spectra taken with
x-ray photoemission spectroscopy show systematic core-level shifts, which do
not obey a simple rigid-band model. The inverse photoemission spectra imply the
existence of an energy gap located $\sim 1$ eV above the Fermi level, which is
a characteristic feature of the electronic structure of the Chevrel compounds.
Quantitative comparison between the photoemission spectra and the
band-structure calculations have been made. While good agreement between theory
and experiment in the wide energy range was obtained as already reported in
previous studies, we found that the high density of states near the Fermi level
predicted theoretically due to the Van Hove singularity is considerably reduced
in the experimental spectra taken with higher energy resolution than in the
previous reports. Possible origins are proposed to explain this observation.
