The extant empirical evidence suggests that defined benefit (DB) pension obligations, deficits, and costs increase corporate leverage and cost of capital, reduce corporate investment and aggravate valuation uncertainties. In the M & A context, DB schemes of target firms may reduce the takeover...

This paper examines the M&A strategy of firms during the first year in office following the appointment of a new CEO and its effect on longer-term firm performance. Using a unique sample of large European listed companies, the results show that CEOs of UK firms execute more deals than their...

This paper develops a new scoring methodology to determine a country's capability to develop and sustain mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity on the basis of publicly available and continuously updated information. The study computes a theoretically grounded maturity index for M&A purposes...

This paper develops a useful, robust, and reliable scoring methodology to determine a country's capability to develop and sustain mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity on the basis of publically available and continuously updated information. Due to the global economic downturn in 2008-2009,...

Corporate communication during an M&A transaction is one of the biggest challenges for all of the stakeholders involved. This article analyses the importance of communication in M&A deals and its significance in the early stages of the transaction. It discusses the factors associated with the...