Companies' Acquisition Activity Throughout Their Public Life Cycle - Evidence From the Nordics and the German-speaking Europe

Thumbnail Image

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
Electronic archive copy is available locally at the Harald Herlin Learning Centre. The staff of Aalto University has access to the electronic bachelor's theses by logging into Aaltodoc with their personal Aalto user ID. Read more about the availability of the bachelor's theses.

Authors

Date

2020

Department

Rahoituksen laitos

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Rahoitus

Language

en

Pages

32

Series

Abstract

Two widely discussed groups of theories predict companies’ acquisition behaviour to follow dramatically different patterns. Agency theories expect firms’ acquisition activity to grow as they mature, whereas neoclassical theories expect both young and mature firms to be active acquirers with middle-aged firms experiencing the lowest acquisition activity. The observed public firms’ acquisition behaviour in the Nordics and the German-speaking Europe follows closely a U-shaped pattern as predicted by neoclassical theories. No evidence that would support the projections of agency theories is observed. Overall, the observed acquisition behaviour of firms in the chosen European markets is consistent with the findings of previous literature that observed US firms in an earlier time period.

Description

Thesis advisor

Ungeheuer, Michael

Keywords

Acquisition, Merger, Acquisition Behaviour, Agency Theories, Neoclassical Theories

Other note

Citation

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-2020120656102

Collections

[kand] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ