IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jfnres/v44y2021i3p607-639.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The real effects of earnout contracts in M&As

Author

Listed:
  • Leonidas G. Barbopoulos
  • Jo Danbolt

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonidas G. Barbopoulos & Jo Danbolt, 2021. "The real effects of earnout contracts in M&As," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 44(3), pages 607-639, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jfnres:v:44:y:2021:i:3:p:607-639
    DOI: 10.1111/jfir.12256
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jfir.12256
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jfir.12256?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, Stephen J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1985. "Using daily stock returns : The case of event studies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 3-31, March.
    2. Mara Faccio & Ronald W. Masulis, 2005. "The Choice of Payment Method in European Mergers and Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1345-1388, June.
    3. William C. Hunter & Julapa Jagtiani, 2003. "An analysis of advisor choice, fees, and effort in mergers and acquisitions," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 65-81.
    4. Datar, Srikant & Frankel, Richard & Wolfson, Mark, 2001. "Earnouts: The Effects of Adverse Selection and Agency Costs on Acquisition Techniques," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(1), pages 201-238, April.
    5. Brown, Stephen J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1980. "Measuring security price performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 205-258, September.
    6. John D. Lyon & Brad M. Barber & Chih‐Ling Tsai, 1999. "Improved Methods for Tests of Long‐Run Abnormal Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(1), pages 165-201, February.
    7. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    8. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Eckbo, B Espen & Giammarino, Ronald M & Heinkel, Robert L, 1990. "Asymmetric Information and the Medium of Exchange in Takeovers: Theory and Tests," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(4), pages 651-675.
    10. X. Frank Zhang, 2006. "Information Uncertainty and Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 105-137, February.
    11. Brian Cadman & Richard Carrizosa & Lucile Faurel, 2014. "Economic Determinants and Information Environment Effects of Earnouts: New Insights from SFAS 141(R)," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 37-74, March.
    12. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Paeglis, Imants & Simonyan, Karen, 2009. "The medium of exchange in acquisitions: Does the private information of both acquirer and target matter?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 523-542, December.
    13. Barbopoulos, Leonidas G. & Adra, Samer, 2016. "The earnout structure matters: Takeover premia and acquirer gains in earnout financed M&As," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 283-294.
    14. Kohers, Ninon & Ang, James, 2000. "Earnouts in Mergers: Agreeing to Disagree and Agreeing to Stay," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(3), pages 445-476, July.
    15. Bates, Thomas W. & Neyland, Jordan B. & Wang, Yolanda Yulong, 2018. "Financing acquisitions with earnouts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 374-395.
    16. Randall Morck & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1990. "The Stock Market and Investment: Is the Market a Sideshow?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 21(2), pages 157-216.
    17. McConnell, John J. & Servaes, Henri, 1990. "Additional evidence on equity ownership and corporate value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 595-612, October.
    18. Hainmueller, Jens, 2012. "Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 25-46, January.
    19. Stulz, Rene M & Walkling, Ralph A & Song, Moon H, 1990. "The Distribution of Target Ownership and the Division of Gains in Successful Takeovers," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 817-833, July.
    20. Moeller, Sara B. & Schlingemann, Frederik P., 2005. "Global diversification and bidder gains: A comparison between cross-border and domestic acquisitions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 533-564, March.
    21. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    22. Alexandridis, G. & Antypas, N. & Travlos, N., 2017. "Value creation from M&As: New evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 632-650.
    23. Micah S. Officer & Annette B. Poulsen & Mike Stegemoller, 2009. "Target-firm information asymmetry and acquirer returns," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 13(3), pages 467-493.
    24. Hansen, Robert G, 1987. "A Theory for the Choice of Exchange Medium in Mergers and Acquisitions," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(1), pages 75-95, January.
    25. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1990. "The Stock Market Investments: Is the Market a Sideshow?," Scholarly Articles 30747157, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    26. Cain, Matthew D. & Denis, David J. & Denis, Diane K., 2011. "Earnouts: A study of financial contracting in acquisition agreements," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 151-170.
    27. Jack Bao & Alex Edmans, 2011. "Do Investment Banks Matter for M&A Returns?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(7), pages 2286-2315.
    28. Kathleen Fuller & Jeffry Netter & Mike Stegemoller, 2002. "What Do Returns to Acquiring Firms Tell Us? Evidence from Firms That Make Many Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1763-1793, August.
    29. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:2:p:773-784 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Leonidas G. Barbopoulos & Krishna Paudyal & Sudi Sudarsanam, 2018. "Earnout deals: Method of initial payment and acquirers’ gains," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 24(5), pages 792-828, November.
    31. Moeller, Sara B. & Schlingemann, Frederik P. & Stulz, Rene M., 2004. "Firm size and the gains from acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 201-228, August.
    32. Leonidas G Barbopoulos & Jo Danbolt & Dimitris Alexakis, 2018. "The role of earnout financing on the valuation effects of global diversification," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(5), pages 523-551, July.
    33. Kale, Jayant R. & Kini, Omesh & Ryan, Harley E., 2003. "Financial Advisors and Shareholder Wealth Gains in Corporate Takeovers," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(3), pages 475-501, September.
    34. Andrey Golubov & Dimitris Petmezas & Nickolaos G. Travlos, 2012. "When It Pays to Pay Your Investment Banker: New Evidence on the Role of Financial Advisors in M&As," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(1), pages 271-312, February.
    35. Erik Devos & Palani-Rajan Kadapakkam & Srinivasan Krishnamurthy, 2009. "How Do Mergers Create Value? A Comparison of Taxes, Market Power, and Efficiency Improvements as Explanations for Synergies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1179-1211.
    36. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    37. C. N. V. Krishnan & Ronald W. Masulis, 2013. "Law Firm Expertise and Merger and Acquisition Outcomes," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(1), pages 189-226.
    38. Paul Draper & Krishna Paudyal, 2006. "Acquisitions: Private versus Public," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 12(1), pages 57-80, January.
    39. Faccio, Mara & McConnell, John J. & Stolin, David, 2006. "Returns to Acquirers of Listed and Unlisted Targets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(1), pages 197-220, March.
    40. Barbopoulos, Leonidas G. & Adra, Samer & Saunders, Anthony, 2020. "Macroeconomic news and acquirer returns in M&As: The impact of investor alertness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    41. Lukas, Elmar & Reuer, Jeffrey J. & Welling, Andreas, 2012. "Earnouts in mergers and acquisitions: A game-theoretic option pricing approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 256-263.
    42. Luca Viarengo & Stefano Gatti & Annalisa Prencipe, 2018. "Enforcement quality and the use of earnouts in M&A transactions: International evidence," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3-4), pages 437-481, March.
    43. Hainmueller, Jens & Xu, Yiqing, 2013. "ebalance: A Stata Package for Entropy Balancing," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 54(i07).
    44. Song, Weihong & Wei, Jie (Diana) & Zhou, Lei, 2013. "The value of “boutique” financial advisors in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 94-114.
    45. Barbopoulos, Leonidas & Sudarsanam, Sudi, 2012. "Determinants of earnout as acquisition payment currency and bidder’s value gains," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 678-694.
    46. Asquith, Paul & Bruner, Robert F. & Mullins, David Jr., 1983. "The gains to bidding firms from merger," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-4), pages 121-139, April.
    47. Vojislav Maksimovic & Gordon Phillips & Liu Yang, 2013. "Private and Public Merger Waves," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 2177-2217, October.
    48. Sean Cleary & Ashrafee Hossain, 2020. "POSTCRISIS M&As AND THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 43(2), pages 407-454, May.
    49. Cain, Matthew D. & Denis, David J. & Denis, Diane K., 2011. "Earnouts: A study of financial contracting in acquisition agreements," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1-2), pages 151-170, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dahlen, Niklas & Lahmann, Alexander & Schreiter, Maximilian, 2024. "Panacea for M&A dealmaking? Investor perceptions of earnouts," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Monaco, Eleonora & Ibikunle, Gbenga & Palumbo, Riccardo & Zhang, Zeyu, 2022. "The liquidity and trading activity effects of acquisition payment methods: Evidence from the announcements of private firms' acquisitions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Qingbang Mu & Wanxiao Zhang & Wenxiu Hu, 2023. "Enterprise Transformation and Innovation: A Study of Performance Compensation from the Perspective of Information Asymmetry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-23, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barbopoulos, Leonidas & Sudarsanam, Sudi, 2012. "Determinants of earnout as acquisition payment currency and bidder’s value gains," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 678-694.
    2. Barbopoulos, Leonidas G. & Adra, Samer & Saunders, Anthony, 2020. "Macroeconomic news and acquirer returns in M&As: The impact of investor alertness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Gada, Viswa Prasad & Goyal, Lakshmi & Popli, Manish, 2021. "Earnouts in M&A deal structuring: The impact of CEO prevention focus," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).
    4. Leonidas G. Barbopoulos & Krishna Paudyal & Sudi Sudarsanam, 2018. "Earnout deals: Method of initial payment and acquirers’ gains," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 24(5), pages 792-828, November.
    5. Andrey Golubov & Dimitris Petmezas & Nickolaos G. Travlos, 2013. "Empirical mergers and acquisitions research: a review of methods, evidence and managerial implications," Chapters, in: Adrian R. Bell & Chris Brooks & Marcel Prokopczuk (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Empirical Finance, chapter 12, pages 287-313, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Leonidas G Barbopoulos & Jo Danbolt & Dimitris Alexakis, 2018. "The role of earnout financing on the valuation effects of global diversification," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(5), pages 523-551, July.
    7. Monaco, Eleonora & Ibikunle, Gbenga & Palumbo, Riccardo & Zhang, Zeyu, 2022. "The liquidity and trading activity effects of acquisition payment methods: Evidence from the announcements of private firms' acquisitions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. Barbopoulos, Leonidas G. & Molyneux, Phil & Wilson, John O.S., 2016. "Earnout financing in the financial services industry," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 119-132.
    9. Adra, Samer & Barbopoulos, Leonidas G. & Saunders, Anthony, 2020. "The impact of monetary policy on M&A outcomes," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Mantecon, Tomas, 2009. "Mitigating risks in cross-border acquisitions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 640-651, April.
    11. Bhagat, Sanjai & Klasa, Sandy & Litov, Lubomir P., 2014. "The Use of Escrow Contracts in Acquisition Agreements," Working Papers 13-19, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Weiss Center.
    12. Barbopoulos, Leonidas G. & Adra, Samer, 2016. "The earnout structure matters: Takeover premia and acquirer gains in earnout financed M&As," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 283-294.
    13. Martynova, M., 2006. "The market for corporate control and corporate governance regulation in Europe," Other publications TiSEM 8651e281-4914-41f2-ac14-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Jose E. Farinos & Begona Herrero & Miguel A. Latorre, 2017. "Self-selection Bias and the Listing Status of Target Firms: Value Effects in the Spanish Market," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 67(5), pages 423-438, October.
    15. Chuang, Kai-Shi, 2017. "Corporate life cycle, investment banks and shareholder wealth in M&As," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 122-134.
    16. Szilagyi, P.G., 2007. "Corporate governance and the agency costs of debt and outside equity," Other publications TiSEM 9520d40a-224f-43a8-9bf9-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Dahlen, Niklas & Lahmann, Alexander & Schreiter, Maximilian, 2024. "Panacea for M&A dealmaking? Investor perceptions of earnouts," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    18. Kohli, Reena & Mann, Bikram Jit Singh, 2013. "Analyzing the likelihood and the impact of earnout offers on acquiring company wealth gains in India," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 203-222.
    19. Feito-Ruiz, Isabel & Menéndez-Requejo, Susana, 2011. "Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions in different legal environments," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 169-187, September.
    20. Leledakis, George & Mamatzakis, Emmanuel & Pirgiotakis, Manos & Travlos, Nikolaos, 2017. "What twenty years of regulations have to say about M&As of U.S. banks?," MPRA Paper 82977, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jfnres:v:44:y:2021:i:3:p:607-639. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.