"We study 98 large M&As of European bidding banks from 1985 to 2000 in order to investigate drivers of excess returns to the shareholders of the targets, the bidders, and to the combined entity of the bidder and the target. Our findings show that many of 13 drivers identified mostly from prior,...

The European banking landscape has experienced a profound restructuring since the mid 1980ties and still is substantially changing. In the last three years, prior to the formal start of the European Monetary Union, we counted more completed large mergers and acquisitions (Mamp;A) than in the...