Due to the rapid evolution of technology, IT software has become incredibly complex. However the human factor still has a very important role on the application of it, since people are responsible to create software. Consequently, software vulnerabilities represent inevitable drawbacks, found to cost extremely large amounts of money to the companies. “Heartbleed” is a recently discovered vulnerability with no prior investigation that answers questions about the impact it has to the companies affected. This paper focuses on the impact of it on the market value of the companies who participated in the vulnerability disclosure process with the help of an event study methodology. Furthermore our analysis investigates if there is a different affection to the value of the company based on the roles those companies had in the process. Our results suggest that the market did not punish the companies about the existence of vulnerability. However the general negative reaction of the market to the incident reflects the importance of a strategic vulnerability disclosure plan for such cases.

This event study analyzes the share price reactions of the owning corporation investors in relation to the Chinese and Korean football clubs' success. Guangzhou Evergrande FC, Beijing Guoan FC, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC, and Pohang Steelers FC are examined which are owned by Evergrande Group, CITIC Group, Hyundai Motors Company, and POSCO Group, respectively. It is assumed that successful events of the football clubs such as winning championships and major players and head coach acquisitions will have a positive boost to the daily returns of the owning corporations. The results are strongest for Pohang Steelers FC but other football clubs also suggest similar trends. The findings offer some tangible support for the assumption that the recent global arms race in transfer spending by football clubs can create value for the owners and suggest that the investments may lead to positive returns.

This paper investigates the academic conclusions on how CEO gender and salary affect firm value, while at the same time adding data on how CEO age affects firm value. Via an event study of S&P 500 CEO changes from 2000 to 2006 I confirm the current academic findings and discover that CEOs promoted during their 40s negatively influence firm value, while CEOs in older age brackets show a positive abnormal return on firm value. With this validation and addition to the existing data, firms and investors can more effectively assess proper candidates for the position of CEO and allocate resources accordingly.

Firms outsource productive tasks to different locations in order to exploit factor price differentials and gain efficiencies from specialization. However, the benefits of outsourcing come with two risks. The first problem occurs when firms share their pre-existing intellectual property (IP) such as database and trade secrets with contractors. While IP is shared to facilitate the outsourcing project, the contractor may behave opportunistically and misappropriate the IP for its own benefit. Since firms derive significant value from their IP, this can lead to severe economic damages in terms of reduced market share and brand value. The second agency problem arises due to non-contractible effort exerted by the contractor. Depending on the outsourced task, shirking can lead to higher costs and poor quality product. In this dissertation, contractual solutions are developed to mitigate these agency problems associated with outsourcing. First, several IP misappropriation cases are enumerated in the context of outsourcing. The existing literature is reviewed and the limitations are addressed in the light of these actual cases. Second, theoretical models are developed by considering two forms of IP misappropriation, depending on whether a R&D contractor emerges as a direct competitor of the principal firm, or the contractor sells the principal?s IP to a competitor. Contracts are developed to implement a ?carrot and stick? strategy, whereby firms share limited IP with their contractor and also provide incentive payments to deter shirking problem. It is shown that complementary strategies like product differentiation, task modularization, and investment in technological solutions can be useful when legal enforcement is weak. It is also demonstrated that even under the possibility of IP misappropriation; firms may gain from outsourcing if in-house inefficiency is high. However, if legal enforcement is weak, outsourcing would entail higher transaction costs. Finally, an event study is conducted to examine the effect of trade secret misappropriation on the value of Lexar. While Lexar is still outsourcing, it is explored how Lexar survived the IP misappropriation problem through product differentiation and marketing strategies.

This thesis investigates the impact of the reform of the split share structure on the Chinese capital market. It adopts an event study methodology to examine the share price performance around the announcements of the reform and its predicted determinants, the type and level of consideration by using a sample of the top 300 companies listed in the combined Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE). I find the three-day cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) to be negative and significant around government announcement of the reform on 29 April 2005, but the three-day CAR around company???s announcement of the reform to be positive and significant. I attribute this change of sentiment by the market to the release of information about the reform process concerning features such as type and level of consideration. I also regress the company???s CAR on the type and level of consideration and find evidence to suggest that type of consideration matters, where investors prefer payment of shares from capital reserves or retained profits, cash, warrants or any combination of these methods as opposed to payment of shares from non-tradable shareholders. However, I observe no relation between level of consideration and CAR. I interpret this reaction to be that investors perceive that the consideration level is fair and reasonable based on the company???s financial and operating conditions. These results imply that the reform of the split share structure exerts a positive impact on a company???s share price and the extent of impact is a function of the type of consideration.

Dividend payments to shareholders can create conflicts between debt and equity investors as these payments can expropriate wealth from bondholders to shareholders. However, dividend payments can also serve as a signal regarding firms' future earnings. Utilizing both improved bond event study techniques as well as a conditional event study model to control for self-selection and the presence of confounding earnings announcements, I find that, on net, dividend increases represent a transfer of wealth from debtholders to shareholders. Nevertheless, bondholders react more favorably to larger dividend changes consistent with the presence of a positive signaling effect. The conditional event study approach also provides the ability to test whether managerial hesitancy in cutting dividends may represent an additional source of expropriation. My results indicate that while bondholders are clearly harmed by these implicit dividend increases, evidence in support of shareholders' gains is mixed.

A indústria bancária brasileira passou por uma onda de fusões e aquisições entre meados dos anos 1990 até o fim dos anos 2000. Para analisar os efeitos mercadológicos e intra-firmas destes eventos, este trabalho se propõe a uma abordagem abrangente acerca dos impactos aos acionistas dos bancos adquirentes através de um estudo de eventos sobre os retornos anormais; dos impactos em indicadores contábeis e financeiros destes bancos adquirentes; e procura por padrões contábeis e financeiros em instituições adquiridas. Como resultado, não encontra evidências de retornos anormais positivos ou negativos aos acionistas de firmas adquirentes no agregado, bem como não evidencia mutações significativas nos balanços destes bancos estatisticamente diferentes de um grupo de controle. No entanto, sob o viés de instituições adquiridas, há evidências de que quanto menor o retorno sobre os ativos, maior a chance de tornar-se alvo em uma operação de aquisição. / The Brazilian banking industry underwent a wave of mergers and acquisitions between the mid-1990s and the late 2000s. In order to analyze the marketing and intra-firm effects of these events, this paper proposes a comprehensive approach of the impacts on shareholders of acquiring banks through an event study on abnormal returns; impact on accounting and financial indicators of these acquiring banks; and search for accounting and financial patterns in acquired institutions. As a result, it does not find evidence of abnormal positive or negative returns to shareholders of acquiring firms in the aggregate, nor it shows significant mutations in the balances of these statistically different banks of a control group. However, under the bias of acquired institutions, there is evidence that the lower the return on assets, the greater the chance of becoming target in a takeover transaction.

The UK competition authorities are responsible for regulating company mergers that were originally considered to have adverse effects that were “against the public interest”, or presently that could result in a “substantial lessening of competition”. The research in this thesis examines wider economic side effects of this regulatory policy that fall outside the remit of the competition authorities. Data on 63 merger cases that were subject to the merger regulatory process by the UK competition authorities between 1989 and 2002 are studied for effects on two economic aspects, shareholder value and managers’ motivations to undertake mergers. Some previous studies have suggested that competition regimes can destroy shareholder value. The research in this thesis confirms the finding from earlier studies of greater gains to shareholders in target rather than bidding companies, but does not find evidence supporting overall loss of shareholder value to target company shareholders when a merger is prohibited. It finds evidence that when the regulatory regime is stable and well understood the capital market behaves efficiently in response to new information. However, for a sub group of the mergers involving companies with a new regulatory regime, of which industry and the market had little or no experience with respect to mergers, the capital market operated less efficiently. A number of studies have also considered the motivation of managers to follow a merger strategy. Apparently, none has looked at the influence of competition regulation on merger motives using stock market data and event study techniques. This research examined data for the stock market’s perceptions of what motivated managers to pursue their initial merger bid. The findings suggest that Synergy and Hubris dominate as motivations for mergers and that, unintentionally, competition policy may help to reduce the number of mergers motivated by Managerialism.

This paper examines the effect on incumbent firms of industries which Amazon.com, Inc. enters. Using event study methodology, this paper tests the returns for incumbent firms on the day Amazon announces entrance into their industry. The paper studies the effects on two portfolios for each industry, a market capitalization weighted and an equally weighted. Each portfolio’s expected return is computed using the market model and then compared to actual returns to find the abnormal return. The results are mixed. Five industry portfolios have significant 1 – day abnormal returns and 2 – day CAR while the six other industries show no significance in either metric. The results prompt a discussion and logic? behind the markets response to Amazon entering new markets. The leading explanation of the industries that saw effects is the time in which Amazon entered.

A indústria bancária brasileira passou por uma onda de fusões e aquisições entre meados dos anos 1990 até o fim dos anos 2000. Para analisar os efeitos mercadológicos e intra-firmas destes eventos, este trabalho se propõe a uma abordagem abrangente acerca dos impactos aos acionistas dos bancos adquirentes através de um estudo de eventos sobre os retornos anormais; dos impactos em indicadores contábeis e financeiros destes bancos adquirentes; e procura por padrões contábeis e financeiros em instituições adquiridas. Como resultado, não encontra evidências de retornos anormais positivos ou negativos aos acionistas de firmas adquirentes no agregado, bem como não evidencia mutações significativas nos balanços destes bancos estatisticamente diferentes de um grupo de controle. No entanto, sob o viés de instituições adquiridas, há evidências de que quanto menor o retorno sobre os ativos, maior a chance de tornar-se alvo em uma operação de aquisição. / The Brazilian banking industry underwent a wave of mergers and acquisitions between the mid-1990s and the late 2000s. In order to analyze the marketing and intra-firm effects of these events, this paper proposes a comprehensive approach of the impacts on shareholders of acquiring banks through an event study on abnormal returns; impact on accounting and financial indicators of these acquiring banks; and search for accounting and financial patterns in acquired institutions. As a result, it does not find evidence of abnormal positive or negative returns to shareholders of acquiring firms in the aggregate, nor it shows significant mutations in the balances of these statistically different banks of a control group. However, under the bias of acquired institutions, there is evidence that the lower the return on assets, the greater the chance of becoming target in a takeover transaction.