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The death of the deal: Are withdrawn acquisition deals informative of CEO quality?

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  • Jacobsen, Stacey

Abstract

To examine the market response to positive revelations of chief executive officer (CEO) quality, this study focuses on CEOs who withdraw acquisition bids when the price becomes increasingly expensive. Firms that withdrawal for price-related reasons earn higher withdrawal returns than firms that withdraw for other reasons. This relation is stronger when CEO uncertainty and discretion is high. CEOs unwilling to increase the offer price are less likely to be replaced and more likely to advance to a larger firm than a control group of CEOs. The finding that the market attaches value to CEO-specific information suggests that unobservable manager characteristics can meaningfully impact firm outcomes.

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  • Jacobsen, Stacey, 2014. "The death of the deal: Are withdrawn acquisition deals informative of CEO quality?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 54-83.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:114:y:2014:i:1:p:54-83
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2014.05.011
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    1. Zhou, Chenxi & Zhang, Yameng & Bu, Maoliang, 2024. "Home country adverse political shocks and cross-border mergers and acquisitions financial performance of politically connected emerging market firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3).
    2. Rexford Attah‐Boakye & Yilmaz Guney & Elvis Hernandez‐Perdomo & Johnathan Mun, 2021. "Why do some merger and acquisitions deals fail? A global perspective," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 4734-4776, July.
    3. Giovanni Ferri & Raffaele Lagravinese & Giuliano Resce, 2021. "Did the COVID-19 Shock Impair the Stock Performance of Companies with Older CEOs?," SERIES 02-2021, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", revised Jun 2021.
    4. Dang, Man & Henry, Darren & Thai, Hong An & Vo, Xuan Vinh & Mazur, Mieszko, 2022. "Does policy uncertainty predict the death of M&A deals?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    5. Choi, Seungho & Xu, Jing, 2022. "What do boards consider in CEO performance evaluation? Evidence from executive turnover," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    6. Xu, Xiaohui & Wang, Fang & Chen, Xiaohua & Yang, Gaoju, 2021. "Does managerial ability matter for cross-border M&As: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Hossain, Md Miran & Javakhadze, David, 2020. "Corporate media connections and merger outcomes," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Hong Zhu & Qi Zhu, 2016. "Mergers and acquisitions by Chinese firms: A review and comparison with other mergers and acquisitions research in the leading journals," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 1107-1149, December.
    9. Gada, Viswa Prasad & Popli, Manish & Malhotra, Shavin, 2024. "Geographic distance in cross-border acquisitions: The impact of CEO's psychological attributes," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(1).
    10. Shaojie Lai & Xiaoling Pu & Qing (Sophie) Wang & Jianing Zhang, 2023. "Reference prices and withdrawn acquisitions," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4365-4384, October.
    11. Chen, Sheng-Syan & Lin, Chih-Yen, 2018. "Managerial ability and acquirer returns," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 171-182.
    12. Cookson, J. Anthony & Niessner, Marina & Schiller, Christoph M., 2022. "Can Social Media Inform Corporate Decisions? Evidence from Merger Withdrawals," SocArXiv 56yrj, Center for Open Science.
    13. Feng Zhao & Youzhi Xiao, 2023. "Information Searching from New Media and Households’ Investment in Risky Assets: New Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-25, February.
    14. Sunny Li Sun & Young Jin Ko, 2023. "The Zone of Conformity: A Comparison of Private and State-Controlled Enterprises in M&As," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 247-284, April.
    15. Even-Tov, Omri & Lourie, Ben & Nekrasov, Alex & Zeng, Jean (Jieyin), 2024. "Failed acquisition offers: The impact of failure reasons on target valuation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    16. Bhattacharya, Debarati & Hsu, Shih-Che & Li, Wei-Hsien & Liu, Chun-Ting, 2019. "A combined firm's decision to hire the target's financial advisor after acquisition: Does “service excellence” pay off?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 297-302.
    17. Shi, Wei & King, David R. & Connelly, Brian L., 2021. "Closing the deal: Managerial response to short sellers following M&A announcement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 188-199.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Withdrawn mergers and acquisitions; CEO quality; Manager characteristics; CEO skill; Private benefits; Overconfidence; Monitoring; Turnover;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

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