In this paper the gains and losses to shareholders of 71 foreign companies which made takeover bids for companies listed in the United Kingdom during the 1986-1991 period are analysed. The average abnormal return during the month of the bid announcement was positive, although not statistically...

Empirical studies have found that takeover activity is positively related to the absolute size of industry-level shocks. In this paper we develop a dynamic framework to analyze the timing of takeover which explains this pattern. Takeover may create value either by exploiting synergies or through...

In our sample of 1,937 US mergers (1995 to 2011), 8.4 percent of all targets received oers with negative premiums where the initial bid undercuts the pre-announcement market price. We theoretically show that target overvaluation, market liquidity and `hidden earnouts', where target shareholders...