Mergers and Acquisition Flashcards
First merger movement 1895-1904 characteristics:
Surge in economy and stock market
Changes in infrastructure
Merged for economies of scale and monopolies
Second merger movement 1922-1929 characteristics:
Surge in economy
Heightened regulation against horizontal mergers
Product-extension, market-extension and vertical-mergers
Conglomerate mergers of the 1960s characteristics:
Surge in economy
Decline in Importance of vertical and horizontal mergers
Defensive diversification to avoid profit instability
E.g. Aerospace industry and its changing market demand
The deal decade (1981-89)’s characteristics:
Surge in economy
Impact of international competition + new industries due to technology
Mostly hostile, paid in cash and financed with debt
Strategic mergers (1992-2000) characteristics:
Surge in economy + globalisation and deregulation of industries
Mosty friendly takeovers, paid with stock
The permacrisis (20th century) characteristics:
Mergers have taken place a lot during this period, apart from dips during financial crisis and covid
What are the common key drivers of merger movements?
- Government (De)regulations
- Technical/financial innovations
- Rising stock prices
- Favourable economic setting - low interest rates, favourable term structures etc
Why do mergers occur?
- Size and returns to scale (economies of scale)
- Transaction costs
Turning points of the first merger movement?
1901 - downturn because some combinations failed to make money
1903 - economy went into recession
1904 - supreme court ruled that mergers can be attacked by Sherman Act
What was a turning point of the 1920 merger movement?
1929 - stock market crash
What was a turning point of the 1960s merger movement?
1968 - Antitrust laws - congress began to move against conglomerate firms
- Declining stock prices
What were the turning points of the 1981-89 merger movement?
- Government actions - passing FIRREA in 89
- Implementation of takeover defences
- Economic recession associated with Gulf War
What was a turning point of the 1992-2000 mergers movement?
Dot.com bubble
What are some of value reducing theories? (3 things)
FCF - firms with FCF are those where internal funds exceed investment required for positive NPV projects
Managerial entrenchment - managers hesistant to distribute cash to shareholders
Value neutral theory - bids result from managerial overconfidence: winner’s curse
What are some valuation increasing effects? (3 things)
Synergy and scale
Transaction costs optimisation
Disciplinary (replacing poor management)
What is the value neutral principle? (valuation effect)
Over-confident
Winner of takeover is the firm that most overvalues
What are the different ways of measuring whether an M&A has been successful?
Weak form: if the stock price after M&A announcement is larger than stock price before
Semi-strong form: if the announcement-period stock return for acquiring firm is higher than the announcement-period stock return on a benchmark
Strong form: if announcement-period for the acquiring firm is higher than the return of the same firm would have been without M&A announcement
What are the 4 methodologies to test M&A performance?
Survey analysis - asking managers directly (good because insights, bad because different focuses)
Clinical study - analyse a transaction in great depth (good because in-depth analysis, bad because results not generalisable)
Accounting study - examine financial results before and after M&A (good because credibile, bad because backward-looking and data may not be comparable)
Event study - examine stock price responses to financial decisions = from similar firms and their similar announcements (good because direct measure of shareholder wealth impact, bad because relies on strong assumptions about the stock market **semi-strong form efficient)
How to carry out an event study:
- Identify event (stock split, dividend initations, stock repurchases)
- Calculate normal stocks returns using a benchmark model
- Calculate and analyse the abnormal returns around the event date
What is the target’s stock price reactions?
- Almost always experiences gain in wealth (from merger effects not from revaluation)
- Cash deals bring about more wealth
- Target share prices have a positive run-up in period prior to takeover announcement
What is the bidder’s stock price reactions?
- Neutral to negative (more negative in cash than stock)
- Lower in deals with multiple bidders
What is the asset sales method of restructuring?
Sale of division or other assets to another firm, usually for cash
- Quaker sold Snapple in 1997
What is an equity carve-out as a method of restructuring?
Public offering of full or partial interest in subsidiary creating a new firm with atl least some autonomy
What is a spin-off as a form of corporate restructuring?
Proportionate distribution of subsidiary shares to the existing shareholders of the parent firm, creating an independent firm
What is “splitting-up” as a method of corporate restructuring?
Separating of two firms, often via spin-off
What is tracking stock as a method of corporate restructuring?
Creation of new class of stock with value based on cash flows of a division
(used in high growth divisions during dotcom era)
What is an exchange offer as a method of corporate restructuring?
Distribution giving shareholders choice between the parent and subsidiary stock - creating a separate firms
What is are some examples of a restructuring method being used in tandem?
Equity carve-out before sale of remaining interest to another firm
Split-ups employ a variety of methods, usually spinoffs
Tracking stock may be the first step of a spinoff or exchange offer
What are some possible motives for restructuring?
Increase transparency and monitoring
To remain competitive and correct mistakes
Corporate focus
What does the Modigliani-Miller theorem of irrelevance state?
If there are no transaction or information costs, corporate organisation is irrelevant - value is determined by assets rather than finanical doctoring
Managers cannot improve value by chopping the firm into pieces - market cannot be fooled
Theory guides that information and transaction costs are possible sources of shareholder value creation
How does the incentive of the strucutre of the firm and monitoring of teams create shareholder value?
(Monitoring of inputs by shareholders)
Divestiture may improve managerial incentives and improve monitoring by the market
How does informational asymmetrics create value? (equity carveout example)
(Managers know more than shareholders)
Equity carve out indicates that company has chosen to raise cash by not issuing its own shares - signal of undervaluation
How do transaction costs create value?
Divestiture is a response of internal organisation being higher than contracting through the market (making rather than buying things)
What is divestiture?
Action of selling off subsidiary investments or interests
What are some of the empirical findings on corporate restructuring?
Larger the divestiture, larger the announcement return
Positive returns to both buyer and seller indiciate that assets are being deployed efficiently
What is a Joint Venture?
A combination of assets from two or more parent firms placed into a separate business entity
E.g. R&D or joint production of one product (Toyota - Mazda 2018)
What are some motives of joint ventures?
Risk reduction
Expansion of activities with smaller required investment
International aspects
What are some reasons that Joint Ventures fail?
Technology never developed
Inadequate pre-planning
Disagreement over basic objectives
Managers refuse to share their expertise with their counterparts of the firm
What are some requirements for success for joitn ventures?
Preplanning
Agreement should be flexible
Participants both need to add value
Key executives should be involved in the implementation
What is a strategic alliance?
A formal or informal agreement between two or more firms to cooperate in some way
E.g. Uber and Spotify (you can play Spotify as you get driven around)
What are some reasons that strategic alliances succeed?
Defined strategic objectives
Good communication
Positive incentives to overcome tension
Involvement from high-level management
What are the characteristics of acquisitions:
Rapid augmentation of firm capabilities
Consequences are long lasting
Often costly due to takeover premium
Challenges of combining organisations