Acquirers do not benefit from hiring the CEOs of firms they buy, either in terms of merger announcement returns or long-run operating performance. This is especially true when the retained CEOs exhibit inferior quality (as proxied by target firm industrial efficiency or the target CEO's...

Using unique, hand-gathered data, this paper examines how public news about the target firmreleased publicly during the private merger negotiation process affects bidding strategies. Weprovide strong evidence that market reactions to information events during the private sale processhave a...

We examine the effect of directors' and officers' liability insurance (D&O insurance) on the outcomes of merger and acquisition (M&A) decisions. We find that acquirers whose executives have a higher level of D&O insurance coverage experience significantly lower announcement-period abnormal stock...

We examine the effect of a CEO's military service on merger and acquisition decisions and outcomes. We find that acquirers led by CEOs with military backgrounds earn significantly higher abnormal stock returns at deal announcement, and these deals exhibit higher short-run and long-run synergies....

Using a comprehensive sample of cross-border mergers, we find that acquirers from countries experiencing large currency appreciations realize higher abnormal announcement stock returns during both the announcement period and the post-merger period. Importantly, this shareholder wealth creation...

We show that a larger migrant stock from an acquiring country to a target country leads to greater deal frequency and dollar value in cross-border acquisitions after controlling for the differences in economic and financial development, regulatory environments, valuations, and cultural distance....