We find that units are more likely to adopt poisonpills at the time of a spinoff if their parents have anti-takeover provisions in place. In addition, the probability that a spinoff unit adopts a poisonpill is negatively related to outside block ownership, but positively related to the size of...

Consistent with agency theory, we find that bidder managers make takeover financing decisions in ways that circumvent more effective monitors. Bidder managers are more likely to use cash rather than stock when targets have aggressive outside blockholders. We also find that the likelihood of a...

Most research that attempts to explain the method of payment used in mergers focuses on firm-specific characteristics, but ignores the influence of industry characteristics. We investigate how industry factors influence the method of payment decision in mergers (as measured by proportion of...

While there are economic motives and empirical support for spinoffs, about one in every four planned spinoffs is withdrawn. This study is the first to explain why some spinoffs are withdrawn. We find that the probability that a spinoff is withdrawn is inversely related to the share price...

Insurance company risk is assessed after their acquisitions. An acquisition may increase risk if it is a strategic mismatch, or an acquisition may reduce risk through cash flow diversification. Over thirty-six month periods surrounding insurance company acquisitions, systematic risk changes are...

On October 16, 2009, the U.S. government charged Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and five others with insider trading, in what was described by a key prosecutor overseeing the case as a "wake-up call to Wall Street and to every hedge fund manager." We find that the mean abnormal stock...

The price discount on privately placed stock is large and can vary substantially among firms. While earlier studies attribute price discounts on privately placed stock to illiquidity and costs of gathering information, we offer a more complete explanation. We find that firms exhibiting higher...

Information leakages experienced by U.S. targets in the pre-bid period are especially pronounced when they involve foreign bidders whose countries have weak insider trading sanctions, are perceived to have prevalent insider trading activity, have a low level of local merger activity, and are not...

Using a sample of 8000 targets in the US and Western Europe over the 1997–2009 period, we find that private targets receive significantly higher payments from bidders than public targets. We find that the private valuation premium is inversely related to the size of the target. We also find...

We find that the deal structure decision to engage in a foreign asset purchase instead of acquiring a foreign target's equity is more likely when bidders are smaller, the bidder's proportion of foreign sales-to-total sales is higher and the target is in an unrelated industry. In addition,...