This paper uses pre-offer market valuations to evaluate the misvaluation and "Q" theories of takeovers. Bidder and target valuations (price-to-book, or price-to-residual-income-model-value) are related to means of payment, mode of acquisition, premia, target hostility, offer success, and bidder...

Recent studies propose that limited investor attention causes market underreactions. This paper directly tests this explanation by measuring the information load faced by investors. The "investor distraction hypothesis" holds that extraneous news inhibits market reactions to relevant news. We...