This study examines whether the pre-deal target-bidder firm governance gap affects the bidder’s post-deal change in governance quality. We estimate cross-sectional regressions using mergers and acquisitions from 2004 to 2016. We find that the bidder’s firm-level governance improves for...

We exploit the arrival of industry-wide synergistic merger waves to identify whether classifiedboards deter takeover bids. In a stylized model, we show that when target classified boards arecostly to bidders, their negative effect on takeover likelihood is more pronounced during mergerwaves....