This paper investigates whether stock-for-stock acquirers undertake real activities to manage earnings before merger announcements. Our results show that stock-for-stock acquirers present unusually high levels of credit sales and overproduction in the quarter immediately before the merger announcement. We also find that the accruals feature of real earnings management can explain the stock-for-stock acquirers’ high discretionary current accruals. In addition, stock-for-stock acquirer firms that accelerate their credit sales experience subsequent market underperformance. Overall, we provide a novel insight into the accruals feature of real earnings management.

本文研究股票换股票收购方是否在合并公告之前进行了实际活动来管理收益。我们的结果表明，以股票换股票的收购方在合并公告发布前的第一季度表现出异常高的信贷销售和生产过剩水平。我们还发现，实际收益管理的权责发生制特征可以解释股票换股票方的可自由支配的当前高应计。此外，加速信贷销售的股份换股票收购公司会遇到随后的市场表现不佳的情况。总体而言，我们对实际收益管理的应计功能提供了新颖的见解。