How M&A Buyers Now Price Post-Acquisition Retention Bonuses

In episode 143, Lucas and Luna drill into a fresh angle in tech M&A: how acquirers are pricing post-acquisition retention bonuses. With Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle all up sharply in the past week, the deal room is hot, and so is the question of what happens to key talent after the close. The hosts walk through a concrete example—how a $50 million earnout might be structured when the target's CTO is flight risk—and look at why retention packages now hinge on vesting cliffs tied to revenue milestones, not just time. They connect this to the broader shift in how buyers price human capital, from developer stickiness to the cost of a post-deal exodus. Lucas brings the specifics, Luna challenges the assumptions, and together they map the anatomy of a retention bonus: the numbers, the risks, and the psychology. If you've ever wondered why some acquisitions fail within a year, this episode explains a big piece of the puzzle. #TechM&A #RetentionBonus #MergersAndAcquisitions #TalentRetention #Earnout #Vesting #HumanCapital #DealRoom #KeyTalent #PostAcquisition #Business #Technology #SoftwareDeals #StrategicBuyers #M&A2026 #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #VentureCapital Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo