please answer a & b carefully

Contingent consideration: On 1/1/17 Big Co. acquired Little company in a transaction to be accounted for as a merger. At that time Little had net assets with a fair value of $400,000. Big company paid $500,000 in cash, and also agreed to a contingent consideration arrangement. Under this arrangement, if cumulative earnings growth three years after the merger attains certain targets additional payments will be made to the previous owners. The cumulative earnings targets, with the attendant additional compensation, are as indicated below. The subjective estimates of the probability of attaining each target are also given. At the end of three years, actual cumulative earnings growth had equaled 6%. Assume that the contingent consideration will take the form of the cash payments indicated in the table above. Ignoring the time value of money, record the acquisition on 1/1/17, as well as the payment of the additional consideration at the end of three years. Assume now that the additional payment would be in the form of shares of stock. On 1/1/17 Big Co. stock ($1 par value) was trading at $20 per share. When the additional payment was made at the end of three years, Big Company stock was trading at $25 per share. Ignoring the time value of money, record the acquisition on 1/1/17, as well as the payment of the additional consideration at the end of three years