This study examines the viability of treating M&A non-consummation decisions (NCDs) as strategic options. A review of published research in strategic management journals reveals that this topic has yet to undergo rigorous academic examination. Putting the M&A non-consummation phenomenon under a strategic management lens, this study asks the following research questions about the acquiring firm: 1) How does an M&A NCD affect the market value of firms? 2) Under what conditions does an M&A non-consummation enhance firms' value? 3) How can an NCD be executed so that it favorably affects the value of the firm? Study data were collected from numerous secondary sources such as CRSP, Ward's Business Directory, Lexis-Nexis Academic Database etc. The study sample size was 158 and for each NCD event, several variables were computed. With cumulative abnormal returns for a (-30, -1) pre-event period -- as a measure of firm performance -- as the dependent variable, multiple regression estimation used the following independent variables: strategic fit, relatedness, cultural fit, timing of NCD and coverage of NCDs. In estimating the regression models, confounding events were identified and controlled for. Several of the study hypotheses are supported, notably the hypotheses pertaining to cultural fit and timing of the NCD. Findings and implications are discussed. Taken as a whole, the study highlights the value of treating M&A NCDs as part of the repertoire of strategic options of acquiring firms. / Business Administration

This dissertation consists of two chapters. The first chapter examines the valuation effect of the Q-hypothesis of mergers and acquisitions. The Q-hypothesis of mergers and acquisitions proposes that takeovers of low-Q targets by high-Q acquirers should be value creating as acquirers redeploy the targets' assets. I revisit the valuation effects of mergers and acquisitions by considering the potential costs of asset reallocation, impact from misvaluation, and the size of the reallocated assets. By examining the combined announcement returns and changes in operating performance, I find evidence consistent with both the benefits and costs of asset reallocation in the full sample of M&As from 1989 to 2010. Controlling for impact for market misvaluation in the proxy of Q, I find that the relation between value creation and the Q-difference is an inverse U-shape. This is direct evidence in support of the Q-hypothesis of M&As using firm-level data from after 1990. The results are not driven by the acquirer's corporate governance structure and the difference in industry. The second chapter investigates investigate the effect of CEO overconfidence on learning from the market in completing the announced mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Overconfident CEOs overestimate their ability to create value and believe that the market incorrectly values the firm. Therefore, they will be less likely to revise their M&A announcement according to unfavorable market reaction. I construct a proxy for CEO overconfidence based on the CEO's decisions on exercising options similar to Malmendier and Tate (2005, 2008). Controlling for the corporate governance structure of the firm, I find that an overconfident CEO is more likely to complete a bid despite unfavorable market feedback. I do not find my results are driven by alternative interpretations including managerial quality and private information. / Ph. D.

No

<p>In theory, the phrase "mergers and acquisitions" (abbreviated M&A) refers to buying, selling and combining different companies in order to gain improved financial performance, create a global presence, and face the global competitive market. Nevertheless, many researches have underlined the high rate of failure among M&A, and the difficulty to achieve expected results and synergies. Among the reasons of failure, many analysts have pointed out the determinant influence of the cultural aspect in the success or the failure of a cross-border merger. However, the cultural issue in M&A is often neglected and too less stressed.</p><p>In order to have a better understanding of the cultural aspect in the merger and acquisition process, and point out its influence on the merger process as well as the corporate culture, we first present a theoretical part introducing the cross-border merger and acquisition concept with the perspective of the national culture, and the role that leaders could play in order to limit the negative impact of culture and the clashes on cross-border M&A. Therefore, a part including three cases of "cultural failure" in the merger process illustrates the concepts explained in the theoretical part. Those well-known cases are: DaimlerChrysler, UpJohn & Pharmacia, and Volvo – Renault. The cases show how the cultural issue had been underestimated and had implied cultural clashes and extra-costs for the companies involved.</p><p>After concluding our findings, we end the thesis with a prospective part based on the possible evolution of the merger and acquisition market. Indeed, we believe that our research topic will gain importance in the future, and the influence of culture on M&A deals may increase.</p>

Cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) have extensively been used by Multilatinas as a preferred entry mode in foreign markets, quickly providing access to resources, competencies and local intelligence without the burden of starting up a greenfield investment and bearing its associated risk to face the liability of foreignness. Using fixed-effects, generalized least square (FEGLS) regressions applied on a panel data sample of 602 CBA deals announced during the 1989-2011 period by 182 Multilatinas competing in 74 industries and headquartered in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, the impact of cultural and psychic distances (as perceived by investors) on the performance of these CBA deals (measured by acquirers\' shareholders\' short term announcement returns) was evaluated. Key emerging conclusions are that: a) the national cultural distance composite index, based on Hofstede\'s four dimensions seems to better predict investors\' reaction to CBA announcements in comparison with the other \"psychic\" distance concepts, such as the administrative and geographical distances between home and host countries; b) investors\' perceptions regarding the cultural dissimilarities between these countries are factored in their response as an anticipation of the expected difficulties that acquiring firms\' will have during the post-merger integration process, as predicted by the several theoretical streams that focus on the role of culture in M&A; c) due to the positive and significant moderating effect of the uncertainty avoidance dimension, investors seem also to perceive that acquirers from home countries characterized by high uncertainty avoidance scores will be able to better handle the challenges that they will face in the post-merger integration stage, to the extent that these firms, as recognized in the cross-cultural research literature, have been associated with a preference for organizational rules and procedures that increase the chances of a successful completion of the merger or acquisition deal; d) although its role is recognized in the cross-cultural literature, power distance levels have no significant moderating effect on the cultural distance-M&A performance relationship. The models are robust to varying lengths of event windows and to alternative measurements of cultural distance, such as those based on the framework developed by the GLOBE project (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004) and on the country cultural cluster maps proposed by Ronen and Shenkar (2013). Limitations of this study are pointed out and future research directions are suggested in order to advance our knowledge and understanding of the antecedents of the performance of the cross-border acquisitions made by Multilatinas. / Aquisições internacionais têm sido extensivamente usadas por Multilatinas como um modo preferencial de entrada em mercados estrangeiros, permitindo um rápido acesso a recursos, competências e inteligência locais, sem as desvantagens tipicamente associadas a investimentos greenfield e os riscos inerentes ao passivo de ser estrangeiro (liability of foreignness). Utilizando modelos de regressão de efeitos fixos e estimadores de mínimos quadrados generalizados, aplicados a uma amostra de dados em painel referentes a 602 aquisições internacionais anunciadas durante o período de 1989-2011 por 182 Multilatinas competindo em 74 setores econômicos e sediadas na Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colômbia, México, Peru e Venezuela, foram avaliados os impactos das distâncias culturais e psíquicas (tais como percebidas pelos investidores) sobre o desempenho destas aquisições (medido pelos retornos de curto prazo aos acionistas das empresas adquirentes). Da análise dos resultados emergem as seguintes conclusões: a) a distância cultural calculada com base nas quatro dimensões de Hofstede parece melhor prever a reação dos investidores aos anúncios das aquisições internacionais, em comparação com os outros conceitos de distância \"psíquica\", tais como as distâncias administrativa e geográfica entre os países de origem hospedeiro; b) a percepção dos investidores em relação às diferenças culturais entre estes países são aparentemente levadas em consideração, como uma antecipação das esperadas dificuldades que empresas adquirentes enfrentarão durante o processo de integração das empresas adquiridas, tal como previsto pelas várias correntes teóricas que focam o papel da cultura em transações de fusões e aquisições; c) devido ao efeito moderador positivo e estatisticamente significante da dimensão relacionada à aversão à incerteza (uncertainty avoidance), os investidores também parecem perceber que adquirentes localizados em países caracterizadas pela elevada pontuação nesta dimensão serão capazes de melhor lidar com os desafios que enfrentarão na fase de integração pós-aquisição, na medida em que estas empresas, conforme reconhecido pela literatura empírica, têm sido associadas a uma preferência por regras e processos organizacionais que permitam aumentar as chances de uma bem sucedida aquisição; d) embora o seu papel seja reconhecido na literatura pertinente, a dimensão tolerância ao poder (power distance) não apresenta efeito moderador significante sobre a relação distância cultural e desempenho das aquisições. Os modelos são robustos para diferentes durações das janelas de eventos, bem como a conceitos alternativos de distância cultural, tais como as baseadas no modelo proposto pelo projeto GLOBE (House et al., 2004) e pelos mapas de classificação cultural dos países desenvolvidos por Ronen e Shenkar (2013). Limitações desta tese são apontadas e direções futuras de pesquisa são sugeridas no sentido de avançar nosso conhecimento e entendimento dos fatores que efetivamente afetam o desempenho das aquisições internacionais realizadas pelas Multilatinas.

In theory, the phrase "mergers and acquisitions" (abbreviated M&amp;A) refers to buying, selling and combining different companies in order to gain improved financial performance, create a global presence, and face the global competitive market. Nevertheless, many researches have underlined the high rate of failure among M&amp;A, and the difficulty to achieve expected results and synergies. Among the reasons of failure, many analysts have pointed out the determinant influence of the cultural aspect in the success or the failure of a cross-border merger. However, the cultural issue in M&amp;A is often neglected and too less stressed. In order to have a better understanding of the cultural aspect in the merger and acquisition process, and point out its influence on the merger process as well as the corporate culture, we first present a theoretical part introducing the cross-border merger and acquisition concept with the perspective of the national culture, and the role that leaders could play in order to limit the negative impact of culture and the clashes on cross-border M&amp;A. Therefore, a part including three cases of "cultural failure" in the merger process illustrates the concepts explained in the theoretical part. Those well-known cases are: DaimlerChrysler, UpJohn &amp; Pharmacia, and Volvo – Renault. The cases show how the cultural issue had been underestimated and had implied cultural clashes and extra-costs for the companies involved. After concluding our findings, we end the thesis with a prospective part based on the possible evolution of the merger and acquisition market. Indeed, we believe that our research topic will gain importance in the future, and the influence of culture on M&amp;A deals may increase.

Submitted by Augusto Sales (asales@me.com) on 2014-12-17T17:13:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 THESIS - Why merger talks collapse ASales - FINAL SUBMITTED w FICHA etc 20141217.pdf: 646710 bytes, checksum: 69261948b9d356282a8c8d684889e7e1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2014-12-19T15:37:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 THESIS - Why merger talks collapse ASales - FINAL SUBMITTED w FICHA etc 20141217.pdf: 646710 bytes, checksum: 69261948b9d356282a8c8d684889e7e1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-02-05T12:34:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 THESIS - Why merger talks collapse ASales - FINAL SUBMITTED w FICHA etc 20141217.pdf: 646710 bytes, checksum: 69261948b9d356282a8c8d684889e7e1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-05T12:37:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 THESIS - Why merger talks collapse ASales - FINAL SUBMITTED w FICHA etc 20141217.pdf: 646710 bytes, checksum: 69261948b9d356282a8c8d684889e7e1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-10 / Why merger talks collapse: an exploratory study about contributing factors behind ‘wedding cold feet' and deal making failure in Mergers and Acquisitions from the perspective of active deal making professionals in Brazil. One basic question encouraged this study: after all the effort, expectations and money usually invested in dealmaking, why are so many transactions simply abandoned, even when the benefits are clear for the business, shareholders, customers and employees?

Cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) have extensively been used by Multilatinas as a preferred entry mode in foreign markets, quickly providing access to resources, competencies and local intelligence without the burden of starting up a greenfield investment and bearing its associated risk to face the liability of foreignness. Using fixed-effects, generalized least square (FEGLS) regressions applied on a panel data sample of 602 CBA deals announced during the 1989-2011 period by 182 Multilatinas competing in 74 industries and headquartered in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, the impact of cultural and psychic distances (as perceived by investors) on the performance of these CBA deals (measured by acquirers\' shareholders\' short term announcement returns) was evaluated. Key emerging conclusions are that: a) the national cultural distance composite index, based on Hofstede\'s four dimensions seems to better predict investors\' reaction to CBA announcements in comparison with the other \"psychic\" distance concepts, such as the administrative and geographical distances between home and host countries; b) investors\' perceptions regarding the cultural dissimilarities between these countries are factored in their response as an anticipation of the expected difficulties that acquiring firms\' will have during the post-merger integration process, as predicted by the several theoretical streams that focus on the role of culture in M&A; c) due to the positive and significant moderating effect of the uncertainty avoidance dimension, investors seem also to perceive that acquirers from home countries characterized by high uncertainty avoidance scores will be able to better handle the challenges that they will face in the post-merger integration stage, to the extent that these firms, as recognized in the cross-cultural research literature, have been associated with a preference for organizational rules and procedures that increase the chances of a successful completion of the merger or acquisition deal; d) although its role is recognized in the cross-cultural literature, power distance levels have no significant moderating effect on the cultural distance-M&A performance relationship. The models are robust to varying lengths of event windows and to alternative measurements of cultural distance, such as those based on the framework developed by the GLOBE project (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004) and on the country cultural cluster maps proposed by Ronen and Shenkar (2013). Limitations of this study are pointed out and future research directions are suggested in order to advance our knowledge and understanding of the antecedents of the performance of the cross-border acquisitions made by Multilatinas. / Aquisições internacionais têm sido extensivamente usadas por Multilatinas como um modo preferencial de entrada em mercados estrangeiros, permitindo um rápido acesso a recursos, competências e inteligência locais, sem as desvantagens tipicamente associadas a investimentos greenfield e os riscos inerentes ao passivo de ser estrangeiro (liability of foreignness). Utilizando modelos de regressão de efeitos fixos e estimadores de mínimos quadrados generalizados, aplicados a uma amostra de dados em painel referentes a 602 aquisições internacionais anunciadas durante o período de 1989-2011 por 182 Multilatinas competindo em 74 setores econômicos e sediadas na Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colômbia, México, Peru e Venezuela, foram avaliados os impactos das distâncias culturais e psíquicas (tais como percebidas pelos investidores) sobre o desempenho destas aquisições (medido pelos retornos de curto prazo aos acionistas das empresas adquirentes). Da análise dos resultados emergem as seguintes conclusões: a) a distância cultural calculada com base nas quatro dimensões de Hofstede parece melhor prever a reação dos investidores aos anúncios das aquisições internacionais, em comparação com os outros conceitos de distância \"psíquica\", tais como as distâncias administrativa e geográfica entre os países de origem hospedeiro; b) a percepção dos investidores em relação às diferenças culturais entre estes países são aparentemente levadas em consideração, como uma antecipação das esperadas dificuldades que empresas adquirentes enfrentarão durante o processo de integração das empresas adquiridas, tal como previsto pelas várias correntes teóricas que focam o papel da cultura em transações de fusões e aquisições; c) devido ao efeito moderador positivo e estatisticamente significante da dimensão relacionada à aversão à incerteza (uncertainty avoidance), os investidores também parecem perceber que adquirentes localizados em países caracterizadas pela elevada pontuação nesta dimensão serão capazes de melhor lidar com os desafios que enfrentarão na fase de integração pós-aquisição, na medida em que estas empresas, conforme reconhecido pela literatura empírica, têm sido associadas a uma preferência por regras e processos organizacionais que permitam aumentar as chances de uma bem sucedida aquisição; d) embora o seu papel seja reconhecido na literatura pertinente, a dimensão tolerância ao poder (power distance) não apresenta efeito moderador significante sobre a relação distância cultural e desempenho das aquisições. Os modelos são robustos para diferentes durações das janelas de eventos, bem como a conceitos alternativos de distância cultural, tais como as baseadas no modelo proposto pelo projeto GLOBE (House et al., 2004) e pelos mapas de classificação cultural dos países desenvolvidos por Ronen e Shenkar (2013). Limitações desta tese são apontadas e direções futuras de pesquisa são sugeridas no sentido de avançar nosso conhecimento e entendimento dos fatores que efetivamente afetam o desempenho das aquisições internacionais realizadas pelas Multilatinas.

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are public shell entities uniquely constructed to acquire one or more privately held businesses. The transaction's structural characteristics put significant pressure on the management team's capabilities to find a suitable company to acquire within the predetermined time frame. This thesis investigates whether management team characteristics, such as operating experience and gender diversity, increases the likelihood of success in identifying the target company and conducting the merger. Although not statistically significant, the results indicate that SPACs led by “C-suite” operators do not have a higher likelihood of successfully consummating a business combination. Furthermore, our data indicates gender diversity to have a positive impact on acquisition likelihood. / Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) är publika skalbolag konstruerade enkom i syfte att förvärva ett eller flera privata bolag. Transaktionen lägger stor vikt på ledningens förmåga att identifiera och förvärva en eller flera verksamheter inom en förbestämd tidsram. Studien undersöker huruvida relevanta karaktärsdrag i ledningsgruppen, såsom operationell erfarenhet och skillnader i kön, ökar sannolikheten att identifiera och förvärva dessa bolag. Resultatet av studien påvisar inget samband mellan operationell erfarenhet och ökad sannolikhet för förvärv, men däremot visar sig skillnader i kön inom ledningsgruppen ha en positiv inverkan på sannolikheten för förvärv. Sammantaget är resultaten dock inte statistiskt signifikanta.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&amp;A) have been widely used as a key strategy for achieving corporate growth and market expansion. However, due to their complex and challenging nature, more than 60% of M&amp;A transactions fail to create value and capture synergies. Hence, it is important to investigate and understand the factors that can contribute to the success and failure of these transactions. This thesis will shed light on one non-operating factor that is considered essential and influential in developing any business relationship and plays a crucial role in the success of M&amp;A transactions, namely trust. The aim of the thesis is to draw on the organizational trust literature and explore factors that affect the process of building and maintaining trust between different parties involved in M&amp;A transactions. Also, the thesis will examine the relationship between trust and organizational structure and discuss how decentralized and centralized structures affects and get affected by trust. In order to fulfill the aim, the study implements a qualitative approach to cope with the subjectivity of trust and to obtain a deeper understanding of the subject. Therefore, seven interviews with professionals with various roles have been conducted and the results were obtained by using a thematic analysis. Furthermore, the results are discussed and analyzed through the lenses of social capital theory, agency theory, information asymmetry theory, and institutional theory. The findings revealed five factors that can influence the process of building trust between buyers and sellers in M&amp;A context namely personal relations, stereotypes, transparency, reputation, and corporate culture. Moreover, the findings highlight that the implementation of a decentralized organizational structure can have a positive effect on trust and minimize the overall uncertainties associated with M&amp;A transactions. On the other hand, the findings suggest that the implementation of a centralized organizational structure can have a mixed effect on trust. In some cases, centralization can create a sense of stability and predictability and thereby minimize uncertainties and foster trust, while in othercases, centralization may lead to frustration and dissatisfaction, resulting in mistrust. The implications and limitations of the thesis are discussed and the need for further research is pointed out in order to improve the understanding of this complex and multifaceted concept. / Sammanslagningar och förvärv (M&amp;A) har använts i stor utsträckning som en nyckelstrategi för att uppnå företagstillväxt och marknadsexpansion. På grund av deras komplexa och utmanande karaktär misslyckas mer än 60% av M&amp;A transaktioner i att skapa värde och fånga synergier. Därför är det viktigt att undersöka och förstå de faktorer som kan bidra till framgång och misslyckande för dessa transaktioner. Denna masteruppsats kommer att belysa en icke-operativ faktor som anses vara väsentlig och inflytelserik för att utveckla alla affärsrelationer och som spelar en avgörande roll för framgången av M&amp;A-transaktioner, nämligen tillit. Syftet med masteruppsatsen är att dra nytta av den organisatoriska tillitlitteraturen och utforska faktorer som påverkar processen att bygga och upprätthålla tillit mellan olika parter involverade i M&amp;A-transaktioner. Masteruppsatsen kommer även att undersöka sambandet mellan tillit och organisationsstruktur och diskutera hur decentraliserade och centraliserade strukturer påverkar och påverkas av tillit. För att uppfylla syftet implementerar studien ett kvalitativt metod för att hantera tillits subjektivitet och för att få en djupare förståelse av ämnet. Därför har sju intervjuer med professionella kandidater med olika roller inom området genomförts och resultaten analyserats med hjälp av en tematisk analys. Vidare diskuteras och analyseras resultaten utifrån sociala kapitalteori, agency teori, informationsasymmetriteori och institutionell teori. Resultaten avslöjade fem faktorer som kan påverka processen att bygga tillit mellan köpare och säljare i M&amp;A-sammanhang, nämligen personliga relationer, stereotyper, transparens, rykte och företagskultur. Dessutom visar resultaten att implementering av en decentraliserad organisationsstruktur kan ha en positiv inverkan på tillitt och minimera den övergripande osäkerheten i sambandmed M&amp;A-transaktioner. Å andra sidan tyder resultaten på att implementering aven centraliserad organisationsstruktur kan ha blandad effekt på tillit. I vissa fallkan centralisering skapa en känsla av stabilitet och förutsägbarhet och därigenom minimera osäkerheter och skapa tillit, medan centralisering i andra fall kan leda till frustration och missnöje, vilket leder till misstro. Uppsatsens implikationer och begränsningar diskuteras och behovet av ytterligare forskning påpekas för att förbättra förståelsen av detta komplexa och mångfacetterade koncept.