Using a sample of 814 transcripts from 2011 to 2018, we examine information within merger and acquisition conference calls. Textual analysis reveals significant differences between the content of M&A call transcripts and both contemporaneous corporate press releases and prior earnings conference calls. We find participation of target executive types in M&A calls occurs more frequently in diversifying acquisitions and is related to payment choice consistent with promoting managerial sector-specific skills and incentive alignment, respectively. Retention of participating target executives is associated with a negative market reaction. We also identify a negative relation between textual sentiment and market reaction consistent with a response to higher levels of information asymmetry. Greater quantitative information, however, is positively related to the market reaction of M&A calls. We develop targeted M&A motive dictionaries to identify financial and strategic content within call transcripts. Consistent with prior literature on merger motivation, deals with more finance (strategy)-oriented words have a higher (lower) market reaction. Overall, our results show that deal-related textual analysis explains a highly significant and economically important component of gains/losses to acquirers.

中文翻译：

---

什么是真正的交易？并购电话会议文本分析的证据

我们使用 2011 年至 2018 年的 814 份成绩单样本，检查并购电话会议中的信息。文本分析揭示了并购电话会议记录与同期公司新闻稿和之前的收益电话会议的内容之间的显着差异。我们发现目标高管类型在并购电话中的参与在多元化收购中发生得更频繁，并且与分别与促进管理部门特定技能和激励调整一致的支付选择相关。保留参与的目标高管与负面的市场反应有关。我们还确定了文本情绪和市场反应之间的负相关关系，这与对更高水平的信息不对称的反应一致。然而，更多的定量信息，与并购呼声的市场反应呈正相关。我们开发有针对性的并购动机词典，以识别通话记录中的财务和战略内容。与先前关于合并动机的文献一致，涉及更多金融（战略）导向词的交易具有更高（更低）的市场反应。总的来说，我们的结果表明，与交易相关的文本分析向收购方解释了收益/损失的一个非常重要和经济上重要的组成部分。