This paper replicates the core underlying merger arbitrage strategy using daily data from the United Kingdom to … generate three simulated merger arbitrage portfolio return series, for the period 2001 through to 2004. Past empirical evidence … indicates that the merger arbitrage strategy generates large risk adjusted returns. More recent evidence indicates that the …

the 1980s. Offsetting this increase, the average bidder-specific component has declined. We propose a theory of bidder …-specific synergies to help interpret these opposing trends. In our theory and in the data, acquirer returns increase with the extent to … consistent with rising merger synergies that have become less bidder-specific …