This paper examines whether market evaluates merger announcements in a reasonable way based on their effect on … fundamental value using a sample of 37 mergers from U.S. industries completed within 1992-1997. For this purpose, the post-merger … to market efficiency hypothesis. Full sample analysis shows that bidder abnormal stock return at the merger announcement …

Largely constant average acquirer returns over the past four decades mask fundamental changes in the takeover market … consistent with rising merger synergies that have become less bidder-specific …