Largely constant average acquirer returns over the past four decades mask fundamental changes in the takeover market … consistent with rising merger synergies that have become less bidder-specific …

issues such as the nature of aggregate merger activity (merger waves), market valuation effects of merger announcements (the … stock price performance of bidder and target firms), and the nature of the sources of merger gains in the context of … a review of actual takeover premiums and their determinants. It then showcases recent empirical contributions on topics …

collusion hypothesis, rivals of the merging firms benefit from the merger since successful collusion limits output and raises …

The market concentration doctrine predicts that a horizontal merger is more likely to have collusive, anticompetitive … effects the greater the merger-induced change in industry concentration. Since a collusive, anticompetitive merger generates … doctrine that the merger-induced expected benefits to the product market rivals of the merging firms should be an increasing …