IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jfinan/v57y2002i2p695-720.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Corporate Diversification Destroy Value?

Author

Listed:
  • John R. Graham
  • Michael L. Lemmon
  • Jack G. Wolf

Abstract

We analyze several hundred firms that expand via acquisition and/or increase their number of business segments. The combined market reaction to acquisition announcements is positive but acquiring firm excess values decline after the diversifying event. Much of the excess value reduction occurs because our sample firms acquire already discounted business units, and not because diversifying destroys value. This implies that the standard assumption that conglomerate divisions can be benchmarked to typical stand‐alone firms should be carefully reconsidered. We also show that excess value does not decline when firms increase their number of business segments because of pure reporting changes.

Suggested Citation

  • John R. Graham & Michael L. Lemmon & Jack G. Wolf, 2002. "Does Corporate Diversification Destroy Value?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 695-720, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jfinan:v:57:y:2002:i:2:p:695-720
    DOI: 10.1111/1540-6261.00439
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6261.00439
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1540-6261.00439?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hayes, RM & Lundholm, R, 1996. "Segment reporting to the capital market in the presence of a competitor," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 261-279.
    2. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1990. "Do Managerial Objectives Drive Bad Acquisitions?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 31-48, March.
    3. Villalonga, Belen, 2000. "Does Diversification Cause the “Diversification Discount”?," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt40v212gm, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
    4. Lang, Larry H P & Stulz, Rene M, 1994. "Tobin's q, Corporate Diversification, and Firm Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1248-1280, December.
    5. John D. Benjamin & G. Donald Jud & G. Stacy Sirmans, 2000. "What Do We Know About Real Estate Brokerage?," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 20(1), pages 5-30.
    6. Kaplan, Steven N & Weisbach, Michael S, 1992. "The Success of Acquisitions: Evidence from Divestitures," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(1), pages 107-138, March.
    7. Owen A. Lamont & Christopher Polk, 2001. "The Diversification Discount: Cash Flows Versus Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1693-1721, October.
    8. Lang, Larry H. P. & Stulz, ReneM. & Walkling, Ralph A., 1989. "Managerial performance, Tobin's Q, and the gains from successful tender offers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 137-154, September.
    9. Jose Manuel Campa & Simi Kedia, 2002. "Explaining the Diversification Discount," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1731-1762, August.
    10. Hasbrouck, Joel, 1985. "The characteristics of takeover targets and other measures," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 351-362, September.
    11. Toni M. Whited, 2001. "Is It Inefficient Investment that Causes the Diversification Discount?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1667-1691, October.
    12. Servaes, Henri, 1996. "The Value of Diversification during the Conglomerate Merger Wave," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1201-1225, September.
    13. Gregor Andrade & Mark Mitchell & Erik Stafford, 2001. "New Evidence and Perspectives on Mergers," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 103-120, Spring.
    14. Raghavendra Rau, P. & Vermaelen, Theo, 1998. "Glamour, value and the post-acquisition performance of acquiring firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 223-253, August.
    15. Karl Lins & Henri Servaes, 1999. "International Evidence on the Value of Corporate Diversification," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2215-2239, December.
    16. Berger, Philip G. & Ofek, Eli, 1995. "Diversification's effect on firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 39-65, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Megginson, William L. & Morgan, Angela & Nail, Lance, 2004. "The determinants of positive long-term performance in strategic mergers: Corporate focus and cash," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 523-552, March.
    2. Stefan Erdorf & Thomas Hartmann-Wendels & Nicolas Heinrichs & Michael Matz, 2013. "Corporate diversification and firm value: a survey of recent literature," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 27(2), pages 187-215, June.
    3. van Lelyveld, Iman & Knot, Klaas, 2009. "Do financial conglomerates create or destroy value? Evidence for the EU," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2312-2321, December.
    4. Denning, Karen C. & Hulburt, Heather & Ferris, Stephen P., 2006. "Risk and wealth effects of U.S. firm joint venture activity," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 271-285.
    5. Lamont, Owen A. & Polk, Christopher, 2002. "Does diversification destroy value? Evidence from the industry shocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 51-77, January.
    6. Martynova, Marina & Renneboog, Luc, 2008. "A century of corporate takeovers: What have we learned and where do we stand?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 2148-2177, October.
    7. Martin, John D. & Sayrak, Akin, 2003. "Corporate diversification and shareholder value: a survey of recent literature," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 37-57, January.
    8. Laeven, Luc & Levine, Ross, 2007. "Is there a diversification discount in financial conglomerates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 331-367, August.
    9. Felipe Balmaceda, 2009. "Mergers and CEO Power," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 165(3), pages 454-486, September.
    10. Doukas, John A. & Kan, Ozgur B., 2008. "Investment decisions and internal capital markets: Evidence from acquisitions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1484-1498, August.
    11. Lin, J. Barry & Pantzalis, Christos & Park, Jung Chul, 2007. "Corporate use of derivatives and excess value of diversification," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 889-913, March.
    12. Malmendier, Ulrike & Tate, Geoffrey, 2008. "Who makes acquisitions? CEO overconfidence and the market's reaction," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 20-43, July.
    13. Patrick Bielstein & Mario Fischer & Christoph Kaserer, 2018. "The cost of capital effect of M&A transactions: Disentangling coinsurance from the diversification discount," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 24(4), pages 650-679, September.
    14. Glaser, Markus & Müller, Sebastian, 2006. "Der Diversification Discount in Deutschland: Existiert ein Bewertungsabschlag für diversifizierte Unternehmen?," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 06-13, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    15. Hoechle, Daniel & Schmid, Markus & Walter, Ingo & Yermack, David, 2012. "How much of the diversification discount can be explained by poor corporate governance?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 41-60.
    16. Martynova, M. & Renneboog, L.D.R., 2005. "Takeover Waves : Triggers, Performance and Motives," Discussion Paper 2005-029, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    17. Martynova, M. & Renneboog, L.D.R., 2006. "Mergers and Acquisitions in Europe," Other publications TiSEM 531d24e9-4f1e-4df3-80db-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Christian Espinosa & Carlos Maquieira & Joao Paulo Vieito, 2012. "Does corporate diversication create value in south america? The chilean case," Working Papers 38, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales.
    19. Anjos, Fernando, 2010. "Costly refocusing, the diversification discount, and the pervasiveness of diversified firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 276-287, June.
    20. Martynova, M., 2006. "The market for corporate control and corporate governance regulation in Europe," Other publications TiSEM 8651e281-4914-41f2-ac14-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jfinan:v:57:y:2002:i:2:p:695-720. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.