We examine the impact of shared auditors, defined as audit firms that provide audit services to a target and its acquirer firm prior to an acquisition, on transaction outcomes. We find shared auditors are observed in nearly a quarter of all public acquisitions and targets are more likely to...

Using 636 large acquisition attempts that are accompanied by a negative stock price reaction at their announcement (“value-reducing acquisition attempts”) from 1990-2010, we find that, in deciding whether to abandon a value-reducing acquisition attempt, managers' sensitivity to the firm's...

We study how globalization has changed the source and aggressiveness of inside trading around the world and identify its determinants. Using a sample of acquisitions of firms in 52 countries announced between 1991 and 2014, we find systematically higher likelihood of insider trading in target...

This paper explores whether corporate acquirers consider environmental reputations whenplanning and structuring takeovers. We find that firms with an environmentally toxic reputation,which have the greatest potential for negative spillovers to their merger partners, have a lowerassociated...

We examine the economic benefits of acquisitions of U.S. public firms. Estimating revelation biases concerning internal investment opportunities, we find that it produces a significant negative bidder announcement effect, often interpreted as shareholder wealth destruction. Examining exogenously...

We examine completed M&A deals with large acquirer shareholder dollar wealth gains at announcement. We find that large-gain acquisitions are (i) typically “bolt-on” deals that are small relative to the acquirer's size; (ii) transaction-specific events (not firm- nor CEO-specific events);...

We find CEO power in acquiring firms can explain the occurrence of both large value creation and destruction deals in M&A. Specifically, we find firms with powerful CEOs make fewer deals and the returns on those deals are less dispersed. Firms with powerful CEOs are also less likely to do all...