We show that the characteristics of serial acquirers are very different from those studied in prior research. Specifically, we find four major types of acquirers common in the data – loners, occasional acquirers, sprinters, and marathoners. Importantly, these acquirers can be distinguished on...

Serial acquirers conduct the vast majority of acquisitions in the U.S. Serial acquirers appear to strategically shift between methods of payment based on changes in their own characteristics, using overvalued stock in stock-financed acquisitions during short windows of opportunity. Acquirer...

We find that firms that treat their employees better are less likely to be acquired. The shareholders of employee-friendly targets also receive lower premiums and smaller share of the surplus created by the deal. We also show that bidders tend to improve their employee policy following the...

Material Adverse Change (MAC) clauses play key roles in essentially all merger negotiations. Fewer exclusions in MAC clauses imply broader abandonment options for acquirers. We study the motivations for different scopes of acquirers' abandonment options. In our comprehensive hand-collected...

We exploit a 2013 Delaware law that reduces the shareholder support threshold for two-step tender offers to investigate the impact of differing levels of shareholder support on deal structures and outcomes. After the legal change, Delaware acquisitions, as opposed to other states, are more...

We examine the patterns of acquisitions by emerging market firms in emerging and developed markets. We show that emerging market firms are becoming increasingly active in targeting companies in developed countries since 1990. The two dominant patterns of emerging market firm acquisitions are...

Acquirers and targets define and allocate interim risk through Material-Adverse-Event (MAE) exclusions in merger agreements. I examine why MAE-exclusions exist based on the risk they address and assess whether such risk allocation affects the gains in the acquisition. Targets and acquirers seem...

Material-Adverse-Change clauses (MACs) are present in virtually every acquisition agreement. These clauses are the outcome of extensive negotiation and exhibit substantial cross-sectional variation in the number and types of events that are excluded from being ‘material adverse events' (MAEs)....