[mikeyouse]

Dan Primack wrote a clarifying article yesterday: https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2016/07/2...

The key part:

because GM GM is being very narrow in how it describes the deal value. The $581 million (or $600 million, whichever you prefer) is the cash and stock that actually went out the Detroit doors during GM’s second fiscal quarter. Not included were a variety of other things, including cash still being held in escrow, expected earn-out payments, employee retention packages and other expected employee compensation (particularly for those with unvested shares at the time of acquisition).

[gumby]

That seems unlikely, as GAAP would require reserving that amount on the balance sheet and typing it to the acquisition.

What Primack describes would be like buying a house and claiming its price is what you paid as the down payment.

[argonaut]

Yes, but I find a $400M retention package to be highly implausible. We're talking the kind of compensation that Google/Facebook would spend to retain 40 top executives.