Business Commons^™

Learning In Serial Mergers: Evidence From A Global Sample, Vivek K. Pandey, Ninon K. Sutton, Tanja Steigner

Accounting, Finance & Business Law Faculty Publications and Presentations

Do frequent acquirers learn from their experience in serial mergers? A recent stream of literature has proposed that the generally observed declining investor response (CARs) to successive acquisitions by frequent acquirers may be evidence of learning, rather than the result of commonly attributed causes such as managerial hubris or empire-building. We examine the learning hypothesis on a global scale, using a sample of 13,326 publicly listed acquiring firms representing 72 nations conducting 27,305 acquisitions over the period 1984 through 2014. Our results provide evidence of acquirer learning on a global scale in the valuation of private targets. In contrast, we …