All Insights
This infographic reveals a timeline of M&A milestone payments on deals where SRS Acquiom has served as post-closing shareholder representative for sellers on 227 M&A transactions since 2008 involving private-target Life Sciences companies.
- Total Life Sciences Deals 227
- Up-Front Payments $39.6B
- Potential Earnout $37.5B
- Earnout Deals 163
Earnout Achievement, by Deal Closing Year*
Achievement rates for early milestones tend to be higher than for later milestones. 26% of earnout potential has been paid on deals that closed 8+ years ago, while 51% of amounts already due in deals from 2017-2019 have been paid.
- All Sectors: ≤2011 26%; 2012-2014 34%; 2015-2016 32%; 2017-2019 51%
- Bio/Pharma: ≤2011 26%; 2012-2014 37%; 2015-2016 36%; 2017-2019 49%
- Devices and Dx Research: ≤2011 26%; 2012-2014 29%; 2015-2016 20%; 2017-2019 52%
Percent number shown is for $ paid out as a percentage of potential earnout $ due by mid-2019.
Timeline of Paid Milestones, from Closing Date
70% of paid milestones are paid within three years, and 93% of paid milestones are paid within five years of closing.
This overall trend has been consistent across all three sectors.
- All Sectors: 155 Total Paid Milestone events, $4.1B
- Bio/Pharma: 71 Total Paid Milestone events, $2.9B
- Devices and Dx Research: 84 Total Paid Milestone events, $1.2B
Don Morrissey
Head of Life Sciences tel:303-250-8936
Don advises life science clients on M&A deal negotiations and post-closing milestones and earnouts. He is principal author of our life science studies and a frequent speaker at industry events.
Before joining SRS Acquiom, Don spent more than a decade helping to grow two venture-backed life science start-up companies through IPOs. He has been responsible for many strategic transactions involving licensing, partnering and M&A, as well as financings with leading venture capital and private equity firms. He was formerly SVP, Corporate Development and General Counsel for Replidyne, an antibiotic drug development company, and VP, Legal Affairs and Business Development for Caliper Life Sciences, a microfluidics company. He began his career as a business attorney with Cooley LLP.
Don holds a law degree from USC and a BA in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado.