We show that the characteristics of serial acquirers are very different from those studied in prior research. Specifically, we find four major types of acquirers common in the data – loners, occasional acquirers, sprinters, and marathoners. Importantly, these acquirers can be distinguished on...

Cash-rich bidders in UK have better announcement abnormal returns than cash-poor ones during 1984-2007, contrasting previous findings in the US. The positive cash reserve effect is mainly from bidders of high long-run growth or those with non-trivial institutional holdings. Moreover, cash-rich...

Before completing an M&A transaction, acquiring firms conduct due diligence. This process provides acquiring firms with a more informed assessment of the expected costs, benefits, and risks of an acquisition and offers one last opportunity to renegotiate or terminate an M&A transaction. However,...

Before completing an M&A transaction, acquiring firms conduct due diligence. This process provides acquiring firms with a more informed assessment of the expected costs, benefits, and risks of an acquisition and offers one last opportunity to renegotiate or terminate an M&A transaction. However,...

Using a hand-collected dataset of 1,225 buy-outs, we examine post buy-out and post exit long term abnormal operating performance of UK management buy-outs, during the period 1980-2009. Our univariate and panel data analysis of post buy-out performance conclusively show positive changes in...

In this study, we evaluate the impact of R&D intensity on acquiring firms’ abnormal returns by examining 925 Canadian completed deals between 1993 and 2002 that have information on R&D expenditures. While examining the returns to acquiring firm shareholders in the R&D intensive firms we...

While empirical studies that use event-study methodology find on average that the gains from mergers and acquisitions are positive, those focusing on accounting figures tend to find a significant drop in performance. We argue that each of the four possible combinations between positive or...

Do acquirors profit from acquisitions, or do acquiring CEOs overbid and destroy shareholder value? We present a novel approach to estimating the long-run abnormal returns to mergers exploiting detailed data on merger contests. In the sample of close bidding contests, we use the loser's...