Hotel company mergers from 2004 to 2007: abnormal stock return and volume activity surrounding the merger announcement date

An unprecedented number of hotel company mergers took place between 2004 and 2007. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were abnormal stock returns or volume activity in the periods surrounding the merger announcement date in the trading of 19 public hotel companies which merged between 2004 and 2007. This study identified the statistically significant relationships in: 1) trading volume of companies that merged as compared to companies that did not merge; 2) abnormal returns for 20 days including and after the merger announcement date as compared to zero.