We investigate whether and how major shareholders influence M&A wealth effects for listed acquirers in Europe. To that end, we examine 342 intra-European takeovers of listed target firms announced between 1997 and 2007. We find that family-controlled acquiring firms on average engage in deals...

We investigate how family ownership influences the industry-diversifying nature of M&As by listed companies in Continental Europe and the corresponding shareholder value effects at deal announcement. For a large sample of 3,485 M&As during 2005–2013, we observe that acquirers having a family...