Earnouts as Payment Currency and Value Gains to Bidder Shareholders

This study analyses the cumulative abnormal return (CAR) to Swedish and German bidders and the impact of method of payment. Cash and Stock as means of financing have been discussed widely in the last decades. More recently the contingent payment form earnout has come to focus of research, and will be further investigated in this study. The study involves a sample of 927 transactions of which 346 bids are made by German and 581 bids are made by Swedish acquirers. Moreover, the sample compromises 24 German and 49 Swedish earnout deals. The sample period is chosen from 01/01/1986 to 31/12/2012 whereby a German or Swedish company acquires a domestic or foreign target of any listing status.