Potential Merger Research Articles

“Self-centered, self-promoting, and self-legitimizing”: CNN’s portrayal of media ownership concentration in the US

ABSTRACT In late 2017 the potential merger between AT&T and Time Warner was blocked while two other comparable media deals were not penalized. Drawing on a critical political economy of communications framework, this article investigates CNN online news’ portrayal of media-ownership concentration in the US. We subjected the news coverage (n = 43) of CNN (a subsidiary of Time Warner) to a thematic analysis along the lines that Braun and Clarke suggest. The results show that CNN’s coverage of media ownership concentration developments can be described as self-centered, self-promoting, and self-legitimizing. While the main focus is on news coverage the article offers an account of the different handling of the three mergers by the Trump administration, the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. The mergers show high levels of politicized intervention. We seek to contextualize and partly explain these findings with contradictions in the present conjuncture.

Prevaluating Technical Efficiency Gains From Potential Mergers and Acquisitions in China’s Coal Industry

With the slowdown of its economic growth, China’s domestic coal industry is facing more and more serious overcapacity. Multiple government departments have jointly proposed that the coal industry should undergo mergers and reorganization to ease this overcapacity, enhance industrial concentration, and optimize production layout. This study thus combines the resample slacks-based measure (SBM) model and potential merger gains model to pre-evaluate the gains from potential mergers and acquisitions (M&As) before making any final decision about them. With a focus on prevaluating efficiency gains before potential M&As instead of efficiency gains after them, we take China’s listed companies in the coal mining and washing industry as the research sample. The data used to evaluate the efficiency from potential M&As come from their annual financial reports from 2013 to 2016. Empirical results show that some mergers of listed coal companies lead to improved efficiency, but not all mergers can bring efficiency improvements. We also find that the most efficient companies are not necessarily the best M&A targets, and that companies suitable for M&As are those in the stage of expansion. In addition, the empirical results confirm that combinations between large coal companies and between cross-listing companies are more efficient.

Collision of ϕ4 kinks free of the Peierls–Nabarro barrier in the regime of strong discreteness

The two major effects observed in collisions of the continuum $\phi^4$ kinks are (i) the existence of critical collision velocity above which the kinks always emerge from the collision and (ii) the existence of the escape windows for multi-bounce collisions with the velocity below the critical one, associated with the energy exchange between the kink's internal and translational modes. The potential merger (for sufficiently low collision speeds) of the kink and antikink produces a bion with oscillation frequency $\omega_B$, which constantly radiates energy, since its higher harmonics are always within the phonon spectrum. Similar effects have been observed in the discrete $\phi^4$ kink-antikink collisions for relatively weak discreteness. Here we analyze kinks colliding with their mirror image antikinks in the regime of strong discreteness considering an exceptional discretization of the $\phi^4$ field equation where the static Peierls-Nabarro potential is precisely zero and the not-too-fast kinks can propagate practically radiating no energy. Several new effects are observed in this case, originating from the fact that the phonon band width is small for strongly discrete lattices and for even higher discreteness an inversion of the phonon spectrum takes place with the short waves becoming low-frequency waves. When the phonon band is narrow, not a bion but a discrete breather with frequency $\omega_{DB}$ and all higher harmonics outside the phonon band is formed. When the phonon spectrum is inverted, the kink and antikink become mutually repulsive solitary waves with oscillatory tails, and their collision is possible only for velocities above a threshold value sufficient to overcome their repulsion.

A new inverse DEA cost efficiency model for estimating potential merger gains: a case of Canadian banks

Estimating potential gains from mergers is an important strategic decision-making problem. This paper introduces a new inverse data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on a cost efficiency model for estimating potential gains from mergers. There are restructuring scenarios for firms that want to minimize cost. The existing inverse DEA technical efficiency models are not appropriate for estimating merger gains in these situations. It is also shown that the proposed inverse DEA cost efficiency model can reveal more merger gains than the inverse DEA technical efficiency model. The applicability of the proposed method is shown through an application in Canada’s banking sector to determine the required level of inputs and outputs for a merged bank to achieve target levels of cost and technical efficiencies. The results highlight the potential financial gains to improving both technical and cost efficiencies as efficiency-seeking banks increasingly become large and complex institutions through growth, mergers and acquisitions in a financial environment that is being shaped by reforms and technological innovation.

Pre-Evaluating the Technical Efficiency Gains from Potential Mergers and Acquisitions in the IC Design Industry

Increased global competition has led to a slowdown in Taiwan’s domestic semiconductor industry growth, which has resulted in many semiconductor companies reducing their investments and or seeking mergers and acquisitions (M & As) to increase market power, expand their business territories or increase their competitive edge. However, as there is general uncertainty regarding the efficiencies to be gained from these M & As, there has been an increase in M & A supervision. While past research has explored company operations and management efficiency after mergers, there has been less focus on potential mergers. Therefore, this study used a resample slacks-based measure (RSBM) and merger potential gains models to evaluate potential merger efficiency gains. Data on 29 Taiwanese-listed integrated circuit (IC) design industry firms were collected to evaluate the efficiency of potential M & As, from which it was found that the potential M & As efficiencies had positive and negative values, indicating that efficiency gains were not guaranteed. A positive value was found for a potential M & A between MTK & NOVATEK and MTK & DAVICOM, which meant that a potential M & A would increase operating efficiencies and reduce costs.

Merger Efficiency Gains: Evidence from a Large Transport Merger in France

Many industries are seeing an increase in concentration, leading to a discussion on the effectiveness of horizontal merger enforcement. The policy debate shows that one of the key arguments put forward when supporting potential mergers is the possibility of realization of merger efficiency gains, specifically in the transport industry. Yet, there exists little empirical evidence on the actual effects of realized mergers on cost efficiencies. We exploit a large and highly debated merger that took place in the French transport industry to evaluate whether a merger between two major transport groups may give rise to merger efficiency gains. We exploit the industry setting to employ a difference-in-differences methodology evaluating the effect of the merger on operating costs of merging transport groups. Our results show that the merger did not lead to any merger specific efficiency gains for the merging parties. Our study relies on the use of several control groups and is robust to a great number of robustness checks as well as to the introduction of heterogeneous treatment effects, depending on the identity of the merging party, the contract type in place, as well as the closeness of competition of local operators. Overall, our study contributes to a growing number of case studies undertaken by economists that can help determine whether horizontal merger policy is being properly enforced.

Negotiating Municipal Merger

This article contributes to organizational research by describing the format and space of negotiation arenas – temporary arenas with diverse social order characteristics. The article also contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of different logics of negotiation. We compare two cases from the Norwegian Local Government Reform. The empirical phenomena of a negotiation arena, where municipalities negotiate potential mergers, provides relevant knowledge. Results from the study show that, despite similar conditional factors, we find significant differences in how the municipalities approach and organize the process, how it evolves and how it ends. We argue that the motivation and design of the negotiation arena not only affect the dominating logic of negotiation through the processes, but also the foundation for any potential mergers. Logics of negotiation are related to the initial characteristics of the negotiation arena, but also become an important variable in the development of this negotiation arena. In this way, the article illustrates a two‐way interaction between social order and logics of negotiation, and shows why negotiation arenas differ and change over time.

A multiplicative method for estimating the potential gains from two-stage production system mergers

In this study, a data envelopment analysis-based approach is proposed for estimating and decomposing the potential gains from the horizontal integrations of two-stage production systems. In the first tier, the gains of the potential merger are measured by a composite efficiency index. The potential efficiency gains are then decomposed as the product of coordination efficiency and two divisional potential efficiency gains. In the second tier, the divisional potential efficiency gains are decomposed into scope, size, and learning efficiencies. We develop a multiplicative framework for decomposing potential efficiency gain in mergers of the two-stage production systems, and the coordination efficiency is considered. In the case study of commercial banks in mainland China, we develop an algorithm for estimating and decomposing potential efficiency gain for a two-stage bank production system.

(Dis)aggregated earnings forecasts and acquisition financing

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how a firm’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) goals influence its voluntary disclosure policy. Specifically, this paper examines how a firm’s M&A financing intentions influence the degree of aggregation in management guidance prior to and after the M&A transaction. Design/methodology/approach Using a logistic model, this study tests the relation between M&A financing and the decision to issue disaggregate earnings guidance for 3,929 acquiring firms from 2007 to 2011. Findings The logistic regression results show that firms are more likely to provide disaggregate earnings guidance when using mostly stock to finance M&A and that the incentives to disaggregate guidance vary throughout the M&A transactional window. Alternatively, because the value of cash is independent of the true value of the acquirer, the results show that firms offering mostly cash to finance M&A are less likely to issue disaggregate earnings forecasts. Additional analysis reveals that the decision to issue disaggregate earnings guidance also influences post-merger outcomes such as CEO turnover. Research limitations/implications The choice to disaggregate earnings guidance and the choice to use stock as a means to finance an acquisition is made by management, thus are endogenous which could introduce bias. Originality/value This study provides insights into management’s incentives and attitudes toward the use of management forecasts to effect a potential merger and acquisition. Given the flexibility management has in issuing voluntary forecasts, management can tailor a financial message toward investors and potential targets in attempt to facilitate a merger and acquisition and to further the firm’s goals.

The Role of Gas Fragmentation During the Formation of Supermassive Black Holes

Abstract We perform cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to study the effect of gas fragmentation on the formation of supermassive black hole seeds in the context of Direct Collapse. Our setup considers different UV background intensities, host halo spins, and halo merger histories. We observe that our low-spin halos are consistent with the Direct Collapse model when they are irradiated by a UV background of J 21 = 10,000. In these cases, a single massive object ∼105 M ⊙ is formed in the center of the halo. On the other hand, in our simulations irradiated by a UV background of J 21 = 10, we see fragmentation and the formation of various less massive seeds. These fragments have masses of 103–104 M ⊙. These values are still significant if we consider the potential mergers between them and the fact that these minor objects are formed earlier in cosmic time compared to the massive single seeds. Moreover, in one of our simulations, we observe gas fragmentation even in the presence of a strong UV intensity. This structure arises in a dark matter halo that forms after various merger episodes, becoming the structure with the highest spin value. The final black hole seed mass is ∼105 M ⊙ for this run. From these results, we conclude that fragmentation produces less massive objects; however, they are still prone to merge. In simulations that form many fragments, they all approach the most massive one as the simulations evolve. We see no uniqueness in the strength of the UV intensity value required to form a DCBH since it depends on other factors like the system dynamics in our cases.

Does Short-Selling Potential Influence Mergers and Acquisitions Payment Choice?

Announcements of stock-financed mergers and acquisitions (M&As) may attract short selling of bidder shares by merger arbitrageurs. We hypothesize that bidders with higher short-selling potential include a higher proportion of cash in their M&A payments to reduce price pressure resulting from arbitrage short sales. Consistent with this prediction, we find a positive impact of the ex-ante net lending supply of bidder shares on the percentage of cash in public target payments. We corroborate this result in a placebo analysis and several robustness tests. Our paper adds to a growing literature analyzing the interplay between corporate and investor behavior.

Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions as a Challenge for Sustainable Business

When considering the challenges for sustainable business, companies implementing cross-border reallocation of capital by means of mergers and acquisitions should take into account the context and evaluation of attributes of their future implementation. The main aim of the paper is, therefore, to identify and specify the key attributes of sustainable cross-border mergers or acquisitions (M&As) influencing the considerations about their future implementation. On the basis of the views of managers from 120 companies (international corporations selected from the Zephyr database) located in 45 countries within the European area that had previously been the subject of a cross-border merger or acquisition, significant attributes were extracted in connection with their experience from their implementation. These attributes are taken into account when considering the implementation of a cross-border merger or acquisition in the future. A factor analysis of the data obtained allowed the extraction of three key attributes of implementation of a potential merger and acquisition process as an important tool of business sustainability—aims, concerns, and reasons. This paper further presents the basic parameters of the Attributes of Future Mergers and Acquisitions (AFM&A) methodology: eigenvalues, Cronbach’s alpha values, the percentage of the variance explained, inter-correlations of the extracted factors, and the results of an analysis of differences in the assessment of the extracted factors by managers. At the same time, no statistically significant differences were found in the assessment of the extracted merger and acquisition assessment factors. The study fills in the research gap in the area by identifying and specifying the attributes of considering the future implementation of M&A management in terms of the broader concept of this issue.

The Alberta Clann and the Threat of a United Right-Wing Movement


 
 
 This briefing note explores the threat posed by the potential merger of the Edmonton chapter of prominent right-wing extremist (RWE) groups — Soldiers of Odin, Wolves of Odin and Canadian Infidels — under a common banner called The Clann, and what repercussions this recent growth in numbers and activity — both online and offline — characterized by xenophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry, could have on other like-minded white supremacist groups operating on Canada’s extreme right fringe.
 
 

Evaluating the potential merger of two internal medicine residency programs: process and recommendations

ABSTRACTBackground: Economic forces have led to significant consolidation within the health-care sector, but the effects of hospital mergers on graduate medical education programs are not well studied. Academic leaders may be expected to operationalize an institutional merger through educational program consolidation. Through a case study of our potential GME program consolidation, the authors present a helpful model for assessing the practicality of a program consolidation and share lessons learned.Methods: A novel exploratory process assessed the viability of four levels of integration for two internal medicine programs within a merged health system. Focused interviews with outside organizations, literature review, SWOT analysis by stakeholders, and a semi-quantitative scoring system resulted in the final recommendation to health system administration.Results: The two internal medicine programs will pursue educational and administrative synergies but will not merge.Discussion: Common challenges facing GME leadership in assessing the viability of a merger include: different organizational culture, mistrust of intentions, lack of a shared vision, lack of communication, and managing the pace of change to prevent erosion of the learning environment. Overcoming these challenges is best accomplished by establishing shared values, recognizing synergies and estimating organizational compatibility. Maximizing faculty and resident interactions while performing combined QI projects, research, or didactics can build trust over time and change the cultural norm. Early successes are vital to the process. Finally, even if residency programs do not merge, they should have common salaries and benefits so that disparities do not engender further distrust.

A test of the impact of mergers on bank competition

AbstractWe propose a new test to evaluate the impact of horizontal mergers on competition in the banking industry. The test is designed to be applied ex ante to potential mergers while being parsimonious in terms of data, as it only uses information on branches in local markets. The test is a counterfactual exercise based on a two‐stage model where banks compete in branching and interest rates and requires comparing the estimated degree of competition in the status quo, where branching networks by banks are those actually observed, with a counterfactual scenario, where the branching network of the new entity is the sum of the branches of the banks involved in the horizontal merger. The statistical difference between the two estimated measures of competition quantifies the impact of the merger. We apply our test to French and Italian mergers.

Detection and Validation of Tropical Peatland Flaming and Smouldering Using Landsat-8 SWIR and TIRS Bands

A Tropical Peatland Combustion Algorithm (ToPeCAl) was first established from Landsat-8 images acquired in 2015, which were used to detect peatland combustion in flaming and smouldering stages. Detection of smouldering combustion from space remains a challenge due to its low temperature and generally small spatial extent. The ToPeCAl consists of the Shortwave Infrared Combustion Index based on reflectance (SICIρ), and Top of Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance in Shortwave Infrared band-7 (SWIR-2), TOA brightness temperature of Thermal Infrared band-10 (TIR-1), and TOA reflectance of band-1, the Landsat-8 aerosol band. The implementation of ToPeCAl was then validated using terrestrial and aerial images (helicopter and drone) collected during fieldwork in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia in the 2018 fire season, on the same day as Landsat-8 overpasses. The overall accuracy of ToPeCAl was found to be 82% with omission errors in a small area (less than 30 m × 30 m) from mixtures of smouldering and vegetation pixels, and commission errors (with minimum area of 30 m x 30 m) on high reflective building rooftops in urban areas. These errors were further reduced by masking and removing urban areas prior to analysis using landuse Geographic Information System (GIS) data; improving the overall mapping accuracy to 93%. For comparison, the day and night-time VIIRS (375 m) active fire product (VNP14IMG) was utilised, obtaining a lower probability of fire detection of 71% compared to ground truth, and 57–72% agreement in a buffer distance of 375 m to 1500 m when compared to the Landsat-8 ToPeCAl results. The night-time data of VNP14IMG was found to have a better correspondence with ToPeCAl results from Landsat 8 than day-time data. This finding could lead to a potential merger of ToPeCAl with VNP14IMG to fill the temporal gaps of peatland fire information when using Landsat. However, the VNP14IMG product exhibited overestimation compared with the results of ToPeCAl applied to Landsat-8.

Pre-evaluating efficiency gains from potential mergers and acquisitions based on the resampling DEA approach: Evidence from China's railway sector

This study combines resampling DEA and the potential merger gains model to pre-evaluate the efficiency gains of three representative M&A schemes (i.e. regional M&A, megamerger, and a coalition between ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ railway bureaus) for China's railway sector over the period 2011–2015. The results reveal that geographically meaningful M&As are better than the other two types in creating efficiency gains due to the special characteristic of the railway sector – network economics. The timing of M&As and the roles and endowments of the railway bureaus must also be considered before any merger. A proper M&A can produce a so-called ‘stimulant’ effect in the short run, but as the ‘stimulant's efficacy’ becomes exhausted over time, the M&A's effect will gradually turn weak. At this time, it is particularly important for policy-makers to introduce a series of desirable institutions. Finally, our empirical findings also support the view that an M&A between two (efficient or not) DMUs does not ensure positive efficiency gains.

Lost economies of scope and potential merger gains in the Norwegian electricity industry

In 2016, the Norwegian Parliament amended the Energy Act, with changes taking effect from 2021. The amended legislation will introduce strict separation of all generation and distribution companies within the electricity industry in Norway. Economies of scope studies from Norway show evidence of large economies of scope. Further, the companies in the industry could utilize the economies of scale potential if they merged. In this paper, we perform merger analysis to investigate potential merger gains in the Norwegian electricity distribution industry. By providing a method of testing for optimal mergers, we can present the best merger combination to the Norwegian electricity industry.

The Analysis of the Implementation of municipal Cooperation and Merger Strategies: Case Study for Slovenia

Abstract Slovenia has only one tier of sub-national government, that is, municipalities. Currently, there are 212 municipalities, and they exhibit the same responsibilities they need to provide to their residents, regardless of their size, and these differences in size are even in the range 1:100. The new national strategy for the development of local self-government has, therefore, stressed the necessity to promote cooperation among municipalities and even potential mergers, not just to ensure cost-effectiveness but also to increase the capacity of municipalities to perform various developmental tasks. Consequently, the aim of the article is to analyse the evolution and factors driving inter-municipal cooperation and municipal mergers, where Slovenia is taken as an example, and case study approach is used in this manner. The results of the analysis indicate that territorial fragmentation at the local level has been accompanied by the increase in the inter-municipal cooperation, although some time lag can be observed. Moreover, the increase in the cooperation can be observed in particular with the onset of economic slowdown and fiscal stress emergence. The results also portray that substantial territorial rescaling cannot be expected in the near future, as suggested by the analysis of driving factors that should contribute to this process, as well as by rather weak ability of central government to promote the process. Consequently, from the practical perspective, we might expect larger role of more in-depth trans-scaling strategies as a mechanism to overcome the problem of sub-optimal size of municipalities in Slovenia.

Assessing the strategic fit of potential M&As in Chinese banking: A novel Bayesian stochastic frontier approach

Banking in China is well-known for being extremely fragmented, thus making the analysis of the sector not a straightforward task. This study aims to explore the strategic fit of potential mergers and acquisitions in the Chinese banking industry. When the operations of two banks are jointly analyzed this means that the inputs and the outputs of these two individual banks are somehow combined in an attempt to better understand the sector as a whole. A novel SFA model with Bayesian inference on input/output prices is proposed to assess the impact of business-related variables on efficiency levels. The results not only reveal that bank size, type, and origin present a significant impact on individual technical efficiency levels, but also exert a significant impact on the efficiency frontier of the industry. The strategic fit of M&As in the Chinese banking industry strongly relies on opportunities derived from banking automation that may arise from acquiring technologically obsolete small banks. Big and foreign banks also exert a positive impact on the technological catch-up of Chinese banks, which may suggest opportunities for sector deregulation.