This paper analyses the incidence of acquisitions, and the determinants of expenditure or acquisitions, in a sample of 110 UK quoted companies, 1970–89. Financial variables, especially those related to Jensen's ‘free cash flow’ theory of acquisitions are found to be significant, notably for dominant firms. But there is little support for the inclusion of market structure variables which seek to capture the strategic role of acquisitions as an instrument of competition in oligopolistic markets.
How does an investor value the announcement of new business integration? The history of acquirer's acquisition may matter for investors. Existing research are divided to the positive or negative answer to the question. Based on the global evidence of 24,263 acquisitions across 81 countries over 19 years, this paper argues that the current contradictory views have failed to take into account the time interval between acquisitions. This is because the wavelength of merger frequency can change the investors' expectations of new business integration and so investment returns. With control of the time interval of a new merger we discover that more mergers generate lower abnormal returns. This finding extends our understanding of the value perception of investors on a merger announcement that can be affected not only by merger numbers but also by their time distribution.
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