The key insight from the seminal work by Modigliani and Miller (1958) is that market imperfections are necessary for financial decisions such as the debt vs. equity to impact firm value. When firms choose debt finance, they must also decide between public debt (e.g., corporate bonds) and private...

We propose a security design model in which a potential acquirer approaches a firm with a value-add plan. The target has a single owner, who possesses private information: he knows whether his firm is compatible with the plan, or not. The seller agrees the acquirer will add value but not as much...