Acquisition strategies, level of economic development and announcement returns

Abstract: This research examines the impact of acquisition strategies and the level of economic development of the target country on announcement returns of acquiring firms in the United Kingdom (UK) during the sixth (2003-2007) and upcoming takeover wave (2013-present). The different acquisition strategies concern geographic expansion (GEO), increasing market share (IMS), vertical integration (VERT), access to intangible resources (INT), concentric diversification (CDIV) and pure diversification (PDIV). Based on a sample of 877 acquisitions, evidence shows that GEO significantly creates value in the sixth wave and results in significantly lower announcement returns in the upcoming wave, possibly explained by a higher integration of capital and production markets. However, after adding the remaining acquisition strategies to the regression model, the latter effect disappears. It shows that VERT and CDIV result in significantly higher announcement returns in the upcoming wave compared to the sixth one. Evidence does not show a relation between the level of economic development of the target country and announcement returns.