Contingent consideration in the form of earnouts or milestones on private-target M&A continues to be a prominent topic with striking long-term and year-over-year trends.
The M&A Earnout and Milestone Trends summary sheet extracts the most impactful data from four proprietary SRS Acquiom studies to illuminate trends including:
- Earnouts are on the rise: 24% of private-target (non-life sciences) deals in 2025 report an earnout, up from 19% in 2014.
- Value of milestones in Life Sciences deals: milestones are an important and highly specialized part of deals with targets in Life Sciences M&A: biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical devices, and diagnostic tools.
- The discrepancy in earnouts: overall, closer to one out of five dollars gets paid across all deals with an earnout.
Download the summary sheet to quickly gain insight into high-level earnout trends.
Kip is a senior director leading the SRS Acquiom thought leadership practice, the mission of which is to share resourceful content built from SRS Acquiom expertise and proprietary data. In addition to facilitating scores of interactive presentations at M&A conferences and law firms, Kip authors a plethora of articles and data studies regularly utilized by the market.
Previously, Kip was a part of the SRS Acquiom Transactional Group, where he collaborated with clients and counsel to negotiate M&A documents including purchase, escrow, payments, and other transactional agreements. Before joining SRS Acquiom, he was an attorney with a Denver-based boutique business law firm working on middle-market M&A deals.
Kip holds J.D. and M.S. (Econometrics) degrees and is a member of the Colorado bar.