I analyzed a sample of 228 U.S. bank acquisitions announced from January 1996 to December 2015. This dissertation explores whether acquiring banks pay more for targets with a higher capital ratio using a better measure of goodwill than previous studies. Specifically, this study uses manually collected goodwill to evaluate the value of bank capital, a measure that I argue is superior to those used in prior studies. I collect information about goodwill for 203 merger and acquisition (M&A) deals. I find a positive relation between the target's capital ratio and the goodwill paid for targets, which is consistent with previous cross sectional analysis on the relation between bank equity capital and value. This positive relation exists in the deals with a bank target, but not when the target is a savings institution. Furthermore, I find that the positive association between the target's capital ratio and goodwill paid by the acquirer only exists in the sample of acquisitions of banks announced before the 2007 financial crisis. This dissertation also evaluates the value of bank capital by analyzing the changes in shareholders' wealth around the announcement of M&As. My empirical analysis shows that banking mergers create value for the shareholder of targets. However, I find a significantly negative association between target's capital ratio and cumulative abnormal return to acquirers in M&As. Furthermore, I also report that this negative association only holds in M&As announced during and after the financial crisis. This dissertation also investigates the impact of bank capital on the cost of equity, another channel through which capital can influence banks' value. This dissertation tests the potential impact of bank capital on the cost of equity in the context of bank M&As. M&As are a good laboratory to study the relation between bank capital structure and the cost of equity capital because M&A transactions alter capital structure, and thus could change the cost of equity capital of the acquiring bank. My empirical results show a positive association between the target's capital ratio and the change in acquirer's annual cost of equity capital after the completion of the deals. Additionally, I also analyze a sample of non-US bank M&As and find a negative association between the target's capital ratio and the cumulative abnormal return of banks acquired in M&As.

Global merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions exceeded $4.7 trillion in 2015, yet more than 70% of M&As fail to meet postmerger performance expectations with unsuccessful organizational integration cited as the primary source of failure. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore organizational integration strategies some business leaders use to achieve anticipated postmerger performance and growth expectations. The study population consisted of 10 executive and midlevel business leaders in 2 privately held companies, domiciled in Arizona and Iowa, who have contributed to successful organizational integration in M&A transactions in the last 5 years. The tenets of organizational change management composed the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected by semistructured interviews, reviews of internal documents, and publicly available information. Data were analyzed using inductive analysis to identify patterns and themes. The themes identified were organizational planning, communications, performance and growth, culture, and leadership and management. The study findings can assist business leaders in understanding the importance of organizational integration planning in the earliest phases of M&A transactions to improve M&A successes. The study findings contribute to positive social change by enhancing business leaders' knowledge to improve M&A postmerger performance, which can stabilize current employment, create new employment opportunities, and generate positive economic improvements for the broader stakeholder group.

Whether mergers and acquisitions create or destroy shareholder value for acquiring companies has been widely researched and remains fairly inconclusive. The purpose of this research was to study the short term and long term impacts of large acquisitions on the share price performance of acquiring companies using the event study methodology.From a population of 11 062 acquisitions made by JSE listed companies between 1999 and 2008, 39 acquisitions met the relevant criteria of non-occurrence of confounding events and the availability of information. The Cumulative Abnormal Returns of acquiring companies over a short term period surrounding the announcement date and the longer term post-announcement date period were tested to observe whether they were significantly different to zero.Whilst statistically significant Cumulative Abnormal Returns were observed over the short term 3-day event window [-1;+1], no statistically significant Cumulative Abnormal Returns were observed around the remaining five event windows. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are an ubiquitous feature of modern corporate landscape. Most are entered into for various synergistic (voluntary) reasons whilst some, such as broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) M&As, are driven largely by legislative requirements. Research has shown that the factors that lead to the success or failure of voluntary M&As are many and complex.Whilst there is a plethora of literature regarding the success factors for voluntary M&As, there is, however, a paucity of academic literature on the qualitative factors that lead to the success or failure of BBBEE M&As, despite quantitative studies showing the benefits of BBBEE M&As. Because of the significance of BBBEE to the economic development of the country, policy makers, academics and business people need to fully understand such factors.Given the dearth of academic literature on the subject, a qualitative, exploratory study conducted by way of face to face, expert, semi-structured interviews, was undertaken to answer the research problem.The study found that whilst BBBEE M&As are similar, in some respects, to voluntary M&As, BBBEE M&As require different or additional success factors to those applicable to voluntary M&As. Some of these are: funding structure, transaction rationale, expectations‟ alignment, clear deliverables, active governance, operational involvement, relationship management, transformation and social investment. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Issues surrounding the climate crisis are becoming more visible in society, and as a result, topics concerning sustainability and social responsibility increase in importance. At the same time, global Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity is increasing. Hence, since the opportunities to include sustainability and social responsibility are a part of the world today, they are a part of M&A. Therefore, these aspects need to be considered, and investors are doing so by measuring them with the concept of ESG (Environmental Social Governance). Therefore, ESG criteria are investigated during the Due Diligence process in an M&A. The scientific research within this area is limited. This indicative study was conducted to explore the content and role of ESG in a Due Diligence process in an M&A. The empirical data was collected through a qualitative, multiple-case study investigating Due Diligence cases. Nine semi-structured interviews with investment professionals who participated in 21 Due Diligence cease were carried out and analyzed in three aggregated dimensions of ESG: Environmental, Social and Governance. This study uncovered twelve themes that created a greater understanding of the content of ESG. Investigating ESG in Due Diligence can help to assess risk, identify sources of value, productive capabilities, and support the achievement of long-term objectives. Furthermore, ESG in Due Diligence plays a major role on different levels. Besides enhancing the informative value, ESG adds complexity and cost to the Due Diligence process.

There is a recurring interest and attention regarding the problems with M&A integrations andthe difficulty to implement these successfully. Focus is often set on necessary financialaspects and smart strategic moves but equally important factors such as leadership andculture has recently been shown to be crucial. The purpose of this study has been to identify potential kinds of efficiency drawbacks inchange management situations of complex M&A integrations. Complex M&A integrationshave been designated by constellations of multiple companies, concentrated in differentindustries. The data collection has been a qualitative case study that spanned over three months, locatedinternationally. More than 40 interviews were conducted, in which the majority have beenface-to-face. The co-operating company contributed with employees to interview and gatherknowledge from, where emphasis was placed on differentiating the interviewees to reduceany potential bias. The findings demonstrate many forms of identified efficiency drawbacks, which inconclusions are later categorized into the efficiency drawback lack of leadership. Thisefficiency drawback may be considered critically important to address, advantageouslyproactively for successful M&A integrations. / Det förekommer ett återkommande intresse och uppmärksamhet gällande problematiken medM&A-integrationer och att det är så svårt att genomföra lyckade sådana. Fokus hamnar oftapå nödvändiga finansiella aspekter och smarta strategiska drag men minst lika viktigafaktorer såsom ledarskap och kultur har på senare tid visats vara avgörande. Syftet med denna studie har varit att identifiera eventuella former av effektivitetshämmareinom förändringsmiljöer uppkomna av komplexa M&A-integreringar. Med komplexa M&Aintegreringaravses i detta fall M&A-konstellationer av multipel art, det vill säga där fler äntvå företag ingår, koncentrerade inom skilda industrier. För datainsamling har valts en kvalitativ fallstudie som sträckt sig över tre månader,lokaliserad internationellt. Drygt 40 intervjuer har utförts, där majoriteten har varit fysiska.Det samarbetande företaget har hållit med personal att intervjua och samla in kunskap ifrån,där tonvikt har lagts vid att differentiera intervjuobjekten för reducering av eventuell bias. Resultatet påvisar många former av identifierade effektivitetshämmare där slutsatsen senarekategoriserar in dessa i effektivetshämmaren avsaknaden av ledarskap. Dennaeffektivitetshämmare kan således anses kritiskt viktig att åtgärda, fördelaktigen proaktivt, förlyckade M&A-integreringar.

Enligt tidigare forskning påverkar fusioner och förvärv inte enbart de direkt inblandade parterna, utan det har även visats medföra olika signalvärden till branschen i stort. Genom en eventstudie omfattande 23 uppköpsbud och 79 konkurrenter på Nasdaq Stockholm undersöker denna studie om det föreligger positiv abnormal avkastning för konkurrenter till budmottagande företag samt olika variablers påverkan under åren 2014–2019. Utifrån studiens resultat kan det inte påvisas statistiskt signifikant positiv abnormal avkastning bland konkurrenter till budmottagande företag, vilket kan bero på problematiken i att identifiera direkt jämförbara konkurrerande företag. Vidare kan valet av marknad, tidsperiod och dataurval även påverkat studiens resultat. Studien kan däremot påvisa att mindre konkurrenter i förhållande till målföretaget upplever en högre positiv abnormal avkastning medan uppköpsbud från utländska bolag påverkar konkurrenternas abnormala avkastning negativt. Resultatet är intressant och något förvånande då sambandet inte kunnat påvisats i tidigare studier och går delvis emot de rådande teorierna inom området.

Background: Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are two types of corporate takeover strategy, that is widely used for strengthening and maintaining a firm competitive advantage in both domestic and global markets. Where the common motives behind M&A, is to achieve business expansion through synergy, or to acquire an existing external technology/product outside of a firm's own operational territory. As the world has entered an era of information and globalization, where innovation seems to prosper and different industry markets have become ever more integrated on a global scale, not least in the software industry. Hence, more firms have resorted to M&A in order to survive in a modern competitive market. For example, to capture more market shares, boost productivity, cut development costs, improve investment returns, etc. Nevertheless, the integration process of M&A carries lots of risks, where there is lots of different factors that needs to be considered and discussed before adopting M&A strategies. Such as, what industry are the involving firm operating in, which country are the involving firm located in, and what economic impacts can be triggered by M&A announcements. However, there are currently lack of literatures investigating the economic impacts of M&A announcements across different industries. That is, depending on if the firms are operating within or outside of the same industry, the economic impacts of the M&A announcement might differ. Objectives: The objective of this thesis is to analyze the market reactions generated from M&A announcements, and determine if the economic impacts will be greater if a software target firm is merged/acquired by a software or non-software acquiring firm. Methods: A quantitative statistical event study has been used as the main methodology in this thesis. Which is a standard method to analyze market reaction, that is in this case represented by financial stock market data. Following the event study, a multiple regression analysis was conducted in order to explain the event study, by examine the economic impact on the abnormal return derived from M&A announcements. Results: The result from the event study disclosed that target firms tends to experience more positive abnormal returns, while acquiring firms will experience negative abnormal returns during M&A announcements. The results of the multiple regression analysis, revealed various significant variables that has high explanatory power to the abnormal return. Conclusions: Based on the empirical results, the greatest economic impact could be identified during an M&A announcement that involves a cooperative partnerships deals between software target firms and non-software acquiring firms. Furthermore, acquiring firms tends to offer a higher premium to target firms during M&A transactions. This in turn indicates that acquiring firms will statistically receive less abnormal returns compared to target firms. Delimitations: Due to the wide-ranging scope of an event study that has many diverse adoptions areas to explore, the author decided to make some demarcations in this thesis. In particular, this thesis will be focusing on analyzing stock price movements prior and during M&A announcements. In addition, certain factors/variables that can potentially generate a significant economic impact during M&A announcements will be investigated. Hence, other aspects that are related or may affect M&A transactions itself, will scarcely be discussed or even excluded from this study.

Vid företagsförvärv kan värde skapas genom synergier, det är dock omdebatterat huruvida företagsförvärv och sammangående i snitt skapar synergivärden eller inte. I denna studie undersöks analytikers samt aktiemarknadens värdering av ett aktieanbud i syfte att utreda om ett sammangående mellan företagen i studien är värdeskapande. Studien undersöker även hur den potentiella värdeökningen till följd av ett sammangående är fördelad mellan företagen. Därigenom utökar studien den befintliga litteraturen om företagsförvärv. I studien används kvalitativ metod genom intervjuer, samt eventstudiemetod. Anbudet som undersöks för att utreda studiens forskningsfråga är Alfa Lavals bud på Neles samtliga aktier den 13 juli 2020. Studiens resultat visar att den största delen av värdeökningen från förvärvsanbudet tillfaller målföretaget, vilket går i linje med flera tidigare studier. Gällande om ett sammangående är värdeskapande eller inte visar det insamlade materialet att det råder skilda meningar. Det går, utifrån studiens insamlade material, därför inte att fastställa att ett sammangående mellan Alfa Laval och Neles är värdeskapande.

Cette thèse explore l'effet du leadership sur la richesse des actionnaires et sur les décisions des dirigeants de la firme acquéreuse. Les deux premiers chapitres de cette thèse examinent l'effet de deux leaderships (le style de leadership libérateur et le style de leadership orienté vers les employés) sur le succès des opérations de F&As à court terme et à long terme. Le premier chapitre met en évidence que les dirigeants qui accordent principalement l'autonomie et favorisent le développement des employés durant le processus de F&A permettent de réaliser le succès des opérations de prise de contrôle. Le deuxième chapitre montre que le dirigeant qui manifeste une plus grande préoccupation pour employés a un impact négatif sur la richesse des actionnaires et que le succès des opérations de F&As peut être expliqué par la théorie d'agence. Le troisième chapitre étudie l'impact du style de leadership du pays de la cible sur les décisions de l'acquéreur en termes de sélection de la cible potentielle et de la prime d'acquisition. Les résultats suggèrent que la probabilité de prise de contrôle et les primes d'acquisition sont significativement liées au style de leadership du pays de la cible. Particulièrement, les entreprisesappartenant à des pays dotés d'un style de leadership charismatique, participatif ou humain élevé ont plus de probabilité d'être des cibles potentielles et de recevoir des primes élevées. / We study the effect of CEO leadership on shareholders' wealth and bidders’ takeover decisions. First and second chapters examine the effects of liberating leadership style and CEO leadership behavior on short-run and long-term M&As success. The first chapter provides evidence that liberating leaders granting autonomy and developing the confidence and skills of employees are more likely to produce short-term success. The second chapter shows that CEO people oriented leadership behavior exhibits an inverted relationship with long-term shareholders' wealth and that M&A failure can be explained by agency conflicts. The third chapter explores the effect of target’s country leadership style on the probability of being a potential target and on the takeover premium. The results of this chapter suggest that takeover likelihood and acquisition premiums are significantly related to the target's country leadership style. Specifically, firms located in countries embedded with higher charismatic, participative or human-oriented leadership style are more likely to receive higher premiums and to be potential targets