We open the black box of the M&A decision process by constructing a comprehensive sample of US firms with specialized M&A staff. We investigate whether specialized M&A staff improves acquisition performance or facilitates managerial empire building instead. We find that firms with specialized...

This paper analyses the determinants of earnings management by the acquirer of 60 takeover-bids that occurred between 1998 and 2008 on the French market. Four main findings are shown in this study. First, we find strong evidence that bidder firms manipulate earnings prior to takeovers suggesting...

This paper models the exchange between cash and decision power among all stockholders in a company with two major stockholders. It investigates the feasibility and profitability of corporate takeovers, and shows the existence, under some conditions, of pairs of Nash equilibrium strategies that...