Hostility in Takeovers:
In the Eyes of the Beholder?
G. William Schwert
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627
and National Bureau of Economic Research
Journal of Finance, 55 No.
6, (December 2000) 2599-2640.
This paper examines whether hostile takeovers can be distinguished from
friendly takeovers, empirically, based on accounting and stock performance
data. Much has been made of this distinction in both the popular and the academic
literature, where gains from hostile takeovers result from replacing incumbent
managers and gains from friendly takeovers result from strategic synergies.
Alternatively, hostility could reflect strategic choices made by the bidder
or the target. Empirical tests show that most deals described as hostile in
the press are not distinguishable from friendly deals in economic terms, except
that hostile transactions involve publicity as part of the bargaining process.
Key words: hostile takeover, poison pill, merger, tender offer, takeover
premium, Q-ratio
JEL Classifications: G34
Cited 373 times in the SSCI and SCOPUS through 2020
© Copyright 2000, American Finance Association
The following file contains the text, tables, references, and figures for
this paper in Acrobat's portable data format (.pdf).
Click here to download
the paper in PDF format.
The takeover sample used in this paper is available in several formats:
[if you use these data for purposes of publication, please cite the
source of the data]
- an Excel spreadsheet here. This file is
about 1,319K.
- an Excel spreadsheet compressed as a ZIP file here.
This file is about 521K.
The layout of this file is illustrated here.
Return to Publications Page
© Copyright 1998-2021, G. William
Schwert
Last Updated on 6/10/2021