| dc.description.abstract | Since 1985, the U.S. market has been facing an increase in merger and
acquisition activity. In addition to detect potential determinants of M&A
success, this thesis does not only examine the short-term performance of
acquirers and targets, but it also determines the long-term M&A performance
of U.S. acquirers across all industries. With a sample of 1,288
M&As between 2002 and 2015, we found negative short-term abnormal returns
to acquirers using the cumulative abnormal return method. However,
since target shareholders gain significantly higher abnormal returns, M&As
create value overall from a short-term perspective. Acquirers’ negative
short-term abnormal returns persist in being negative over the long-term
analysis. The buy-and-hold abnormal return method in event-time reveals
significant value destruction of 25.8% over a three-year investigation period.
Also, the study detects a significant impact of the acquirer´s and target
´s price-to-book ratio, method of payment, relative profitability, and
deal rationale on the long-term post-acquisition performance. However, the
influence of relative size is inconclusive and could not ultimately be determined
in this study. Lastly, the acquisition attitude (friendly vs. hostile)
and cross-border transactions provided no evidence of affecting deal success. | en_US |
