We use the shifting nature of Delaware disclosure requirements for fairness opinions in tender offers to assess the impact of voluntary versus mandatory disclosure. To do so, we obtain the disclosures of fairness opinions by the targets of over 900 tender offers from 1995 to 2019. Over this time...

When evaluating a merger or acquisition proposal, boards frequently seek fairness opinions from their financial advisors. This fairness opinion ratifies the consideration being paid or received as "fair from a financial point of view" to shareholders. This chapter (Chapter 26 in "The Art of...