This paper provides an overview of the academic literature on the market for corporate
control, and focuses specifically on firms' performance around and after a takeover. Despite …

We review recent research into how firms navigate four complex decisions in corporate
takeovers:(a) deal initiation,(b) pre-offer toehold acquisition,(c) the initial (public) offer price …

Hedge fund activists target firms engaging in empire building and improve their future
acquisition and divestiture strategy. Following intervention, activist targets make fewer …

Because firms' takeover motives are unobservable to investors, mergers are only partially
anticipated and often appear as mixed blessings for acquirers. I construct and estimate a …

The method of payment choice in merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions has been the
subject of much research in the finance literature. But significant changes in the economic …

We formalize the concept of “dark matter” in asset pricing models by quantifying the
additional informativeness of cross‐equation restrictions about fundamental dynamics. The …

We measure value creation by activist investors via structural estimation of a model of the
choice between passive investment and activism. Our estimates imply that average returns …

Although acquisitions are a popular form of investment, the link between firms' financial
constraints and acquisition policies is not well understood. We develop a model in which …

We formalize the concept of “dark matter” in asset pricing models by quantifying the
additional informativeness of cross-equation restrictions about fundamental dynamics. The …

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are often dubbed as a market for lemons because of the
extent of information asymmetry embedded in M&A transactions. A country's institutional …