Auditor distraction: An unintended consequence of M&As
研究发现并购会导致收购方审计团队分心，造成年报延迟、客户流失、审计质量下降，并引发市场负面反应，对共享审计师的其他公司产生不利影响。
We find that Mergers and Acquisitions (hereafter M&As) can cause severe distractions for audit teams of the acquirers. Distracted audit teams cause delays in the filings of annual financial reports by their other clients and are 4 % more likely to lose those clients. Clients of distracted auditors exhibit lower audit quality, evidenced by higher chances of financial misstatements and shareholder class action lawsuits due to misstatement or misrepresentation of material information. The market reacts negatively to auditor distractions, suggesting a significant shareholder wealth impact. Our paper identifies a channel for M&As to create an adverse impact on firms that merely share the same auditor with the acquirer firms.