Earnouts address merger valuation risk by deferring payment of a large part of deal consideration and making it contingent on targets’ future performance. We find acquirers of unlisted targets using earnouts gain more (less) than those making full up-front payments in cash (stock). Larger and older acquirers benefit more from earnout-based deals, as do foreign acquirers and acquirers advised by top-tier or boutique advisors. We address identification through the propensity score matching method and a quasi-natural experiment. Acquirers realize the highest returns from earnouts when the deferred payment is around 30% of deal value. Deferred payments are larger after the SFAS 141(R) reform.

中文翻译：

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并购中盈余合同的实际影响

收益通过推迟支付大部分交易对价并使其取决于目标公司的未来表现来解决合并估值风险。我们发现使用盈余的非上市目标收购方比以现金（股票）全额预付款的收购方获得更多（更少）。较大和较老的收购方从基于收益的交易中受益更多，外国收购方和由顶级或精品顾问提供建议的收购方也是如此。我们通过倾向得分匹配方法和准自然实验来解决识别问题。当延期付款约为交易价值的 30% 时，收购方会从盈余中获得最高回报。SFAS 141(R) 改革后延期付款更大。