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The Intangibles Song in Takeover Announcements: Good Tempo, Hollow Tune

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  • Wagner, Alexander F.
  • Filipović, Zoran

Abstract

Mergers and acquisitions are often motivated by the intention of creating value from intangible assets. We develop a novel word list of intangibles and apply it to takeover announcements. The value of these deals to the acquirer, as shown by abnormal announcement returns, is questionable: One standard deviation more in intangibles talk lowers returns by 0.50 percentage points. Agency problems explain little of these results. Rather, the cross-section of announcement returns, payment mode choices, and insider trades suggest that intangibles talk reflects managerial overoptimism. In sum, takeover announcements reveal important information regarding the quality of deals.

Suggested Citation

  • Wagner, Alexander F. & Filipović, Zoran, 2019. "The Intangibles Song in Takeover Announcements: Good Tempo, Hollow Tune," CEPR Discussion Papers 13560, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13560
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate announcements; Intangible assets; Intangibles talk; Mergers and acquisitions; Takeovers; Textual analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

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