Holistic bidding strategies: Addressing target shareholders’ behavioral resistance in M&As

Beni Lauterbach, Blake Loriot, Yevgeny Mugerman, Joshua Shemesh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The study examines how behavioral considerations of target shareholders affect deal completion likelihood. Lauterbach, Mugerman and Shemesh (2024) show that bidders adjust their offer prices to accommodate target shareholders’ loss aversion, and we find that these premium adjustments appear to mitigate potential bid resistance. Our tests, conducted in an extensive sample of all U.S. public firm merger offers in 1990–2019, suggest a holistic pricing strategy among bidders: the offer price is based not only on intrinsic values and financial analysis; it also usually incorporates the price adjustment necessary to neutralize target shareholders’ behavioral resistance, thereby facilitating deal acceptance.

Original languageEnglish
Article number106822
JournalFinance Research Letters
Volume74
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s)

Keywords

  • Deal completion
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Prospect theory
  • Reference prices

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