Impact of Risk Aversion on Bidder's Optimal Strategy in Takeover Contests

Abstract

We consider a takeover setting in which bidders are risk averse and study aversion's consequences on their strategy. We found that when bidders are risk averse, under some conditions, their overbidding depends on the size of toeholds they hold. We show that there is a threshold under that a bidder doesn't overbid into the takeover process and becomes aggressive above that treshold. However, if the overbidding increases in toeholds size, it decreases in valuation. Without toeholds, takeovers's results are similar if bidders are averse or neutral risk.