Acquirers’ Reception of Signals in M&A Markets: Effects of Acquirer Experiences on Target Selection
研究了收购方如何根据自身经验（一般并购经验与目标特定经验）解读高科技企业的信号，从而影响目标选择，基于美国生物技术行业上千家企业的样本。
Abstract A key challenge facing acquirers is how to judge the technological and other resources of high‐tech ventures. While it is well known that acquirers can benefit from signals about targets to reduce acquirers’ uncertainty in the selection of acquisition targets, this leaves open the question of the degree to which certain acquirers would rely on a target’s signals. We argue that different levels and types of experience can shape an acquirer’s attention to high‐tech ventures’ signals. On the one hand, general acquisition experience can lead an acquirer to pay more attention to and act on signals. On the other hand, target‐specific experience developed from prior collaborations can reduce the value of signals by directly mitigating an acquirer’s risk of adverse selection. Based on a sample of over a thousand technology ventures in the US biotechnology industry, our empirical evidence demonstrates that the combination of acquirers’ experiences and targets’ signals explains who buys whom in a high‐tech industry.