Assessing the effects of mergers and acquisitions on firm performance,plant productivity,and workers: newl evidence from matched employer‐employee data

Empirical studies of mergers and acquisitions typically focus on firm‐level financial performance. In contrast, we use human capital theory to model these events as transactions that simultaneously have cross‐level, real effects on workers, plants, and firms. Our empirical analysis is based on longitudinal, linked employer‐employee data for virtually all Swedish manufacturing firms and employees. We find that mergers and acquisitions enhance plant productivity, although they also result in the downsizing of establishments and firms. Firm performance does not decline in the aftermath of these ownership changes. We conclude that such transactions constitute a mechanism for improving the sorting and matching of plants and workers to more efficient uses. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hold-up of anti-competitive mergers

We construct a model of endogenous mergers and study some issues of whether and how to control mergers, taking into account firms equilibrium response to policy. Anti-competitive mergers benefit competitors more than the merging firms. We show how such free-riding reduces firms incentives to merge (holdup). Firms delay merger proposals, hoping other firms will merge instead. The final result, however, is an overly concentrated market. Merger control may thus preserve competitive markets. In the presence of holdup, even reasonable policies such as requiring divestiture or using cost-benefit analysis, may be worse than not controlling mergers at all.     

The success of mergers in Germany

This paper presents empirical evidence of the success of mergers in the Federal Republic of Germany. In general, the results show that the mergers are not successful. The shareholders of acquiring firms have to accept cumulative abnormal losses of −9.38 per cent. Returns on assets show also significant declines. According to the pattern of diversification it was found that product extending acquiring firms performed best. High cash flow enables to limit losses. Firms that have frequent experience of mergers tend to gain from their mergers.     

Ecological investigation of firm effects in horizontal mergers

Using an ecological lens, we extend strategic management and industrial organization theory to investigate the performance effects of horizontal mergers. We theorize that firms differ in their ability to benefit from horizontal mergers; that the products involved in the merger differ in their ability to attain and sustain any increase in performance above their premerger level; and that resource niches in which each product competes differ in terms of competitive constraints. We then test these predictions using longitudinal data specified at the product–market level, a unit of analysis that is less influenced by aggregation bias than are industry, firm, and even line-of-business level data. Our findings demonstrate how organizational ecology, when coupled with strategic management and industrial organization economic theories, can enrich our understanding of horizontal mergers. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Endogenous Mergers of Complements with Mixed Bundling

This paper studies endogenous mergers of complements with mixed bundling, by allowing both for joint and separate consumption. After merger, partner firms decrease the price of the bundled system. In addition, when markets for individual components are sufficiently important, partner firms find it strategically advantageous to raise the prices of stand-alone products, thus making substitute ‘mix-and-match’ composite products less attractive to consumers. Even though these effects favor the profitability of mergers, merging is not always an equilibrium outcome. The reason is that outsiders respond by cutting their prices to retain their market share, and mergers can be unprofitable when competition is intense. From a welfare analysis, we observe that the number of mergers that are observed in equilibrium may be either excessive (when markets for individual components are important) or suboptimal (when markets for individual components are less important).     

Who's acquiring whom? — Experimental evidence of firm size effect on B2B mergers and marketing/sales tasks

A recent study has revealed a marked growth in global mergers and acquisitions between firms from developed and developing countries. Unlike previous merger waves, however, companies in emerging markets are playing an increasingly important role. This highlights the need for greater scrutiny of more, and diverse, aspects of mergers. In particular, the size difference between firms involved in mergers and its impact on merger outcomes are of interest. This paper examines whether the involvement of differing numbers of employees (either from the acquiring firm or from the acquired firm) may influence merger success. Drawing on previous work in understanding organizational culture and merger dynamics, we conduct a laboratory experiment that not only confirms the presence of learning and conflict in organizational cultures in mergers but also presents new findings in relation to the relative size of the firms involved.     

Market Consolidation and Productivity Growth in U.S. Wireline Telecommunications: Stochastic Frontier Analysis vs. Malmquist Index

This study analyzes the merger effects for 25 Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers over the period 1996–2005 using stochastic frontier analysis with a time-varying inefficiency model. We further conduct a comparison of results between the stochastic frontier analysis and the Malmquist index method. The empirical results indicate that the sample of telecommunications firms has experienced deterioration in average productivity growth following mergers. Significantly, both approaches suggest that firms that do not merge underperform in terms of average productivity growth.     

Analytical Screens for Electricity Mergers

Electricity mergers pose distinct challenges for competition policy. Electricity demand is highly inelastic in the short run, storage is limited, and transmission constraints limit the ability to substitute generation at other locations. As a result, a merger can affect prices in many different markets and even generators with small market shares may be able to exercise market power. The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approach for screening horizontal mergers, based on the concentration thresholds in the Department of Justice/Federal Trade Commission Horizontal Merger Guidelines, can fail to identify mergers that lessen competition, and mergers that fail the FERC screen may have no significant anticompetitive effect. We propose competitive residual demand (CRD) analysis, which examines the supply curves of the markets affected by a merger and considers the ability and incentive of firms to raise prices before and after a proposed merger. CRD analysis is a relatively easy way to address the incentives for generators to exercise market power and relies on data that are often available. Vertical (convergent) mergers between electricity and gas raise additional concerns, and we propose a methodology to screen vertical mergers.     

Airline horizontal mergers and productivity: Empirical evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

The identification of possible efficiency gains is a core issue in the analysis of mergers. However, empirical studies are generally subject to bias caused by merger endogeneity. In the early 2000s, the Chinese government pursued a strategy of merging small firms in key industries to create large enterprise groups. Mergers created by this policy provide a rare quasi-natural experiment to investigate the effect of mergers. We take the opportunity to apply the difference-in-differences approach to identify the effect of mergers on the efficiency of Chinese airlines. Overall, our analysis suggests that the mergers increased the productivity of Chinese airlines.     

Preemptive mergers under spatial competition

Mergers for market power generally benefit outsider firms more than participating firms. Hence, outsiders should welcome such mergers between their competitors but, frequently, this is not the case. Under spatial competition some outsiders gain more than the participating firms but others might benefit less. Thus, if the number of admissible mergers is limited, firms may decide to merge to preempt rival mergers. This paper studies the incentives for preemptive merger by firms engaged in spatial competition.     

企业横向兼并理论及模型研究综述

首先分析了企业横向兼并战略产生的背景,然后分别从外生兼并行为、内生兼并行为和动态兼并行为角度系统地介绍同质产品市场企业兼并动机与效应、异质产品市场企业兼并动机与效应以及网络外部性产品市场企业兼并动机与效应等各种理论研究模型,并评述了各种理论研究模型的结果与存在的局限性。     

The use of stock market returns in antitrust analysis of mergers

One of the most promising recent innovations in merger analysis has been the attempt to predict the effects of horizontal mergers by examining the share prices of the rivals to the merging firms. In this paper we describe the standard procedure, discuss some of the major criticisms of that procedure, and propose a modification, apply it to a sample of recent mergers, contrast the results with those from the standard procedure, and discuss the appropriate uses and remaining limitations of the model for antitrust analysis.The views expressed in this paper reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of their employer. We wish to thank the referees and Mary Streitwieser for helpful comments, and Becky Carr for excellent typing services.     

Mergers and product quality: Evidence from the airline industry

Retrospective studies of horizontal mergers have focused on their price effects, leaving the important question of how mergers affect product quality largely unanswered. This paper empirically investigates this issue for two recent airline mergers. Consistent with the theory that mergers facilitate coordination but diminish competitive pressure for quality improvement, we find that each merger is associated with a quality decrease (increase) in markets where the merging firms had (had no) pre-merger competition with each other, and the quality change can have a U-shaped relationship with pre-merger competition intensity. Consumer gains/losses associated with quality changes, which we monetize, are substantial.     

Industry costs and consolidation: efficiency gains and mergers in the U.S. railroad industry

Since partial deregulation in 1980, there has been a massive consolidation of firms in the U.S. railroad industry premised largely on efficiency gains. We estimate a cost function and use it to calculate cost effects for specific mergers and for all mergers at the industry level from 1983–2003. Our central results are that consolidation in the railroad industry accounts for about an 11.4 percent reduction in industry costs (more than $4 Billion in 1992 prices), and that while there are tremendous differences across mergers with respect to the direction, level, timing, and source of cost impacts, most mergers result in cost savings.     

ENTRY DETERRENCE BY NON‐HORIZONTAL MERGER*

We study when and how pure non‐horizontal mergers, whether cross‐product or vertical, can deter new entry. Organizational mergers implicitly commit firms to more aggressive price competition. Because heightened competition deters entry, mergers can occur in equilibrium even when, absent entry considerations, they do not. We show that, in order to prevent a flood of entrants, mergers arise even when a marginal merger costs incumbent firms more than does a marginal entrant.     

The long‐term performance of horizontal acquisitions

This paper examines how value is created in horizontal mergers and acquisitions. More specifically, it examines the impact of post‐acquisition asset divestiture and resource redeployment on the long‐term performance of horizontal acquisitions. The data come from a detailed survey of acquiring firm managers and cover 253 horizontal mergers and acquisitions that were initiated by European and U.S. firms in manufacturing industries for the period 1988–1992. This study incorporates insights from the cost efficiency and resource‐based theories to propose a model of the effects of asset divestiture and resource redeployment on long‐term acquisition performance. Overall, our results show that both asset divestiture and resource redeployment can contribute to acquisition performance, with, however, a significant risk of damaging acquisition performance when the divested assets and redeployed resources are those of the target. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Patterns of abnormal returns and the competitive effects of horizontal mergers

This paper examines the abnormal stock returns of rivals of firms undertaking horizontal mergers that were challenged by the FTC over the period 1981–1987. At the time of merger announcements, the rivals earn positive abnormal return on average; at the time of the antitrust complaints, the rivals earn normal returns. Past studies have argued that this specific pattern of abnormal returns necessarily indicates that mergers could not have reduced competition. This paper finds that this pattern of abnormal returns is a result of the different effects of antitrust complaints on smaller and larger rivals. The evidence suggests that the mergers may have created efficiencies, but the pattern of abnormal returns is not inconsistent with mergers that may also have resulted in higher product prices.     

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions by Chinese listed companies: A principal–principal perspective

Chinese listed firms have gained the world’s attention with several ambitious, high-profile cross-border mergers and acquisitions. In most of these deals, the Chinese government is the largest shareholder of the acquiring firms. As such, it may be the case that the Chinese government pushes through such deals even though they are not in the best interests of minority shareholders, giving rise to principal–principal conflicts. Along these lines, we hypothesize that increased government ownership in the acquiring firm will be associated with investors viewing a cross-border merger deal in less favorable terms. In addition, we hypothesize that environmental complexity will moderate this negative relationship. We test our hypotheses with a sample of cross-border mergers and acquisitions involving Chinese firms from 2000 to 2008. We find support for the main hypothesis, that is, that investors are indeed skeptical of cross-border mergers and acquisitions deals when the government is the majority owner (i.e., principal–principal conflicts). However, we find no support for the moderating effect. We discuss the implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners and suggest future research directions.     

Strategic momentum: The effects of repetitive,positional, and contextual momentum on merger activity

This paper defines and examines three types of strategic momentum. Repetitive momentum occurs when organizations repeat previous strategic actions. Postitional momentum occurs when organizations take actions that sustain or extend existing strategic positions. Contextual momentum occurs when general traits, such as organizational structure, shape strategic action in a consistent fashion. Event-history analysis of 262 large firms over a 29-year period indicates that: (1) the occurrence of mergers tends to increase the rate of mergers of the same type (repetitive momentum), and (2) organizational decentralization increases the rate of diversifying mergers (contextual momentum). Product market diversification was found to increase the probability of product extension mergers but not conglomerate mergers, only partly confirming positional momentum. The results indicate that internal momentum can affect merger activity, and suggest the importance of continuing research on the role of inertia in organizational adaptation.