The rights offer method - in which current shareholders receive short-term warrants to purchase a new share issue on a pro rata basis - were once the dominant method for U.S. public companies to raise equity. However, despite the low direct issue costs of rights, since 1980 a mere 2.5% of U.S....

I review recent takeover research that advances our understanding of “who buys who” in the drive for productive efficiency. This research provides detailed information on text-based definitions of product market links between bidders and targets, the role of the supply chain and industrial...

We examine whether pre-bid target stock price runups lower bidder takeover gains and deter short-term toehold purchases in the runup period. A dollar increase in the runup raises the initial offer price by $0.80 (markup pricing). Bidder gains, while decreasing in offer price markups, are...

Surprisingly, bidders rarely acquire a target stake (toehold) prior to launching control bids, despite paying large takeover premiums. At the same time, toeholds are large when they occur, and toehold bidding is the norm in hostile takeovers. To explain these observations, we develop and test an...

We present unique empirical tests for overbidding using data from Sweden's auction bankruptcy system. The main creditor (a bank) can neither bid in the auction nor refuse to sell in order to support a minimum price. We argue that the bank may increase its expected revenue by financing a bidder...

We present large-sample evidence on the performance of domestic and U.S.(foreign) bidder firms acquiring Canadian targets. Domestic bidders earn significantly positive average announcement-period abnormal returns, while U.S. bidder returns are indistinguishable from zero. Measures of pre- and...

We examine rights issues on the Oslo Stock Exchange, where seasoned public offerings now take place almost exclusively through use of the relatively expensive standby underwriting method rather than unsinsured rights. We show that the propensity to use standby underwriting increases as expected...

This essay surveys the empirical literature on corporate breakup transactions (divestitures, spinoffs, equity carveouts, tracking stocks), leveraged recapitalizations, and leveraged buyouts (LBOs). Many breakup transactions are a response to excessive conglomeration and reverse costly...