In an "activist risk arbitrage," a shareholder attempts to reshape an announced M&A through public campaigns, profi ting from improved terms. Activists target deals with low premiums, and those susceptible to managerial conflicts of interest, including going-private deals and deals upon which...

This paper identifies a limit to arbitrage that arises from the fact that a firm's fundamental value is endogenous to the act of exploiting the arbitrage. Trading on private information reveals this information to managers and helps them improve their real decisions, in turn enhancing...

A relatively new activist investor strategy is to purchase shares in the acquirer after an M&A announcement and exercise shareholder rights to change deal terms, or even to block the deal, through public campaigns. We provide new evidence on how the strategy affects target firms and activists'...