Newly listed firms are more and more active in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As). The ‘stock as currency' motivation explains why firms use publicly traded stocks as acquisition currency after their Initial Public Offering (IPO). We extend its implications by focusing on the role played by stock...

This paper studies the impact of regulation on IPO markets using historical data. Regulatory interventions have different effects on the development of public equity markets under different conditions. Studying the whole population of 879 Italian IPOs from the unification of Italy (1861) through...

The most common method for valuing companies going public is the use of comparable firm multiples. We compare the selection of peer firms made by investment banks as underwriters at the IPO with that done shortly thereafter as analysts. We find that 3 out of 7 comparable firms, on average, are...

This paper studies the combined effect of affiliation with prestigious universities, underwriters, and venture capitalists on the valuation of biotech ventures at IPO and their post-IPO stock performance. We argue that affiliation with prestigious universities provides affiliated firms with a...

This document describes recent research on European Initial Public Offerings. The first section reviews my studies on valuation of IPOs, while Section 2 describes the papers on ownership and governance and Section 3 on performance of IPOs. The role of the underwriters is reviewed in Section 4....

We use a sample of 3,677 European IPOs during the period 1998-2012 to examine how the adoptions of corporate governance codes by Member States of the European Union (EU) have affected IPO underpricing on Member State-regulated markets, where issuers are subject to corporate governance rules...

The recent decline in IPO activity can be explained by the small firms' increasing preference for being acquired rather than growing independently. This paper sheds light on this explanation by focusing on the nature of the firms facing this decision and their potential merger synergies. First,...

We study the post-issue operating performance of UK Initial Public Offerings. Using several measures, we find that the performance of firms going public on the Official List deteriorates significantly after the issue. On the contrary, IPO-firms on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) use the...

Using a European private firm sample, we conduct a dynamic empirical analysis of private firm exit choice, previously modeled as a one-time IPO versus acquisition decision. Going public may yield firms a valuation premium (over a direct acquisition) through a post-IPO acquisition, but may also...

We study the post-issue operating performance of UK Initial Public Offerings. Using several measures, we find that the performance of firms going public on the Official List deteriorates significantly after the issue. On the contrary, IPO-firms on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) use the...