European cross-border acquisitions: Long-run stock returns and firm characteristics

We investigate the long-run stock return performance of European cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) bidders for the period 2002–2012. Our analysis shows that, though acquirers underperform their matched control firms over the thirty-six months following deal completion, this underperformance is not ascribed to the acquisition event, but rather explained by differences between acquirers and control firms in seven firm characteristics....