How to Structure an Acquihire Deal in the AI Talent Race

Podcast: M&A Science · Kison Patel

Opublikowano: 2026-07-29

Derek Liu, M&A Partner at Baker McKenzie Acquihires used to be priced at roughly a million dollars per engineer. Now buyers pay hundreds of millions, sometimes billions, for a team, and the old deal structures can't carry that weight. Derek Liu, M&A Partner at Baker McKenzie, explains why tax leakage is pushing these deals back to stock purchases, so you inherit the whole company when you only wanted the people. Diligence flips with it: less time protecting IP, more time validating engineers before signing and planning how to exit what you don't...