The paper investigates whether the presence and tenure of Private Equity (PE) investment in European companies improves their performance. Previous studies documented the unambiguous merit of a buyout during the 1980s and 1990s for listed firms in the US and UK markets. This study analyzes such...

'One-share, one-vote,' a bedrock principle of Anglo-Saxon corporate governance, is back in the spotlight. Except this time, the aim is to diminish its application rather than to extend its global footprint.Hoping to stem the tide of short-termism in the financial markets, prominent commentators...

The paper examines the relationship between share ownership by boards of British stock exchange listed companies and accrual based earnings management. It provides the first empirical evidence that the relationship is impacted by UK Company Law and the institutional governance framework.We...

Competition and antitrust law aims to prevent companies from engaging in anti-competitive behavior and to promote and protect market competition. In this context, mergers and acquisitions are under particular scrutiny, since they are often assumed to be motivated by possible market power...

We investigate whether and how major shareholders influence M&A wealth effects for listed acquirers in Europe. To that end, we examine 342 intra-European takeovers of listed target firms announced between 1997 and 2007. We find that family-controlled acquiring firms on average engage in deals...

The Thirteenth Directive on Takeover Bids of 2006 has to be revised on the basis of experience gained in the five years of its application. This revision includes an examination of the control structures and barriers to takeover bids for those bids that do not fall within the scope of...

Over the last two decades privatization programs in different countries radically reduced the role of the State as a key player in the economic arena. We use agency theory to discuss the theoretical relationship between changes in the firm's principal-agent structure following privatization, and...

We investigate how family ownership influences the industry-diversifying nature of M&As by listed companies in Continental Europe and the corresponding shareholder value effects at deal announcement. For a large sample of 3,485 M&As during 2005–2013, we observe that acquirers having a family...