Sony acquires Bungie for $3.6 billion - staying multiplatform

[EricHiggin]

the-pi-guy said:

Sony mentioned this to investors:
Bungie is a private company, the majority of whose shares are owned by its employees. So the payment of the consideration is structured to incentivize the shareholders and other creative talent to continue working at Bungie after the acquisition closes. Approximately one-third of the $3.6 billion consideration for acquisition consists primarily of deferred payment to employee shareholders, conditional upon their continued employment and other retention incentives.

These amounts will be paid over the course of several years after the acquisition closes, and will be recorded as expenses for accounting purposes. We expect about two-thirds of these deferred payments and other retention incentives to be expensed in the first two years after the acquisition closes.

So ~$2.4 billion for the actual buyout, $1.2 billion largely goes to employees over several years.  

Based on Bungie's past, this is a smart way of doing things. Just in case.