Purpose

What determines the level of acquisition premium? This paper aims to investigate the effect of acquirers’ social capital as reflected through their network position (structural holes and network density) on the level of acquisition premiums.

Design/methodology/approach

This study predicts acquisition premiums using a panel data set of 324 mergers and acquisition (M&A) transactions including 161 unique acquirers over a 21-year timeframe. M&A and alliance information are obtained from the securities data company platinum database; firm financial data are obtained from the COMPUSTAT database.

Findings

The results show that alliance network social capital provides acquiring firms with information benefits, thus, reducing the acquisition premium. However, such information benefits are also contingent on target valuation uncertainty and acquirers’ structure exploitation tendency.

Practical implications

Different types of network structures provide different social capital influences: managers should be aware of their advantages and pitfalls when engaging in M&As. The findings suggest that firms should pay close attention to social capital when making decisions regarding acquisition premiums.

Originality/value

Past research has indicated that acquiring firms tend to overestimate the value of target firms. Still, little attention has been paid to organizational-level social capital in analyzing the determinants of acquisition premiums. This study offers insight into the effect of network structure on M&A acquisition premiums.

中文翻译：

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并购溢价的决定因素：社会资本视角

目的

决定收购溢价水平的因素是什么？本文旨在研究通过收购方的网络地位（结构漏洞和网络密度）反映的收购方社会资本对收购溢价水平的影响。

设计/方法/方法

这项研究使用21年内324个并购（M＆A）交易的面板数据集（包括161个独特的收购方）来预测收购溢价。并购和联盟信息可从证券数据公司白金数据库中获取；公司财务数据是从COMPUSTAT数据库获得的。

发现

结果表明，联盟网络社会资本为并购公司提供信息收益，从而降低了并购溢价。但是，这些信息收益还取决于目标估值的不确定性和收购方的结构开发趋势。

实际影响

不同类型的网络结构提供不同的社会资本影响：管理人员在进行并购时应意识到其优势和陷阱。研究结果表明，企业在制定有关收购溢价的决策时应密切注意社会资本。

创意/价值

过去的研究表明，收购公司往往会高估目标公司的价值。但是，在分析收购溢价的决定因素时，组织层面的社会资本却很少受到关注。这项研究深入了解了网络结构对并购溢价的影响。