A friendly merger can be structured as a one-step transaction or a two-step transaction. For a variety of reasons, such as the fast speed with which two-step mergers are completed, there are concerns about whether target shareholders are disadvantaged by this structure in comparison with...

We investigate the consequences of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for information asymmetry in the banking sector. We test competing hypotheses about the effect of M&As on the information environment. M&As either increase information asymmetry (the opacity hypothesis) or diminishes it (the...