The sources of value creation in acquisitions of intangible assets
研究发现，收购方公告回报和并购后业绩随目标公司无形资产比例上升而提高，这种价值创造源于盈利收购方购买互补性无形资产和增长期权，且目标公司财务约束会降低购买价格。
We document that acquirer announcement returns and post-M&A performance rise with a target's proportion of intangible assets. This shareholder wealth creation is associated with profitable acquirers purchasing complementary intangible assets and promising growth options from less profitable targets. Purchase prices are lower when targets face financial constraints limiting their ability to pursue promising investment opportunities. Analyzing acquisitions across different classes of intangible assets and matching successful with failed bids for targets with intangible assets support our main findings and suggest that these results are robust to endogeneity concerns. We conclude that target intangible assets provide important sources of M&A value creation.