The first convergence project of IASB and FASB created the widely equivalent international and U.S. accounting standards for business combinations IFRS 3 and SFAS 141. The purchase price must be allocated to identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed with the residual amount recognized...

Prior US research indicates that acquiring firms pay an additional premium in acquisitions (i.e., pooling transactions) in which they do not need to amortise goodwill. The results of these studies however are subject to endogeneity problems as the accounting method choice and takeover premiums...

A large body of literature demonstrates that acquisitions are on average value-destroying for the acquirer. We investigate whether the change in the acquirer's information uncertainty contributes to acquirer wealth losses. Information uncertainty affects the discount rate (the cost of capital),...

This study examines whether requiring the disclosure of audited financial statements disciplines managers' mergers and acquisitions (M&A) decisions. When an M&A transaction meets certain disclosure thresholds, the SEC requires the public acquirer to disclose the target's audited financial...

We explore the governance effect of short-selling threat on mergers and acquisitions (M&A). We use equity lending supply (LS) to proxy for the threat, as short sellers' incentives to scrutinize a firm depend on the availability of borrowing shares. Our results show that acquirers with higher LS...

This study examines whether acquirers make better acquisition decisions when target firms' financial statements exhibit greater comparability with industry peer firms. We predict and find that acquirers make more profitable acquisition decisions when target firms' financial statements are more...

This study examines whether requiring the disclosure of audited financial statements disciplines managers' mergers and acquisitions (M&As) decisions. When an M&A transaction meets certain disclosure thresholds, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires the public acquirer to disclose...

How does the possibility of being taken over affect a manager’s voluntary disclosure? This paper analyzes this question in a setting where the manager’s disclosure complements the rival’s expertise and influences the probability the firm is taken over by a rival. The threat of being...

This study investigates whether conference calls accompanying M&A announcements in Europe provide valuable information for capital market participants and hence induce an abnormal stock price revaluation on the bidder’s equity. Based on handpicked data for transactions between 2008 and 2012 we...

Watts (2003) and Ball and Shivakumar (2005) argue that accounting conservatism decreases managerial incentives to make negative net present value investments. I develop and test a new hypothesis that accounting conservatism is associated with managers making less risky investments. I find that...