Article Convergence mergers and acquisitions published in Information & Management

An article concerning the convergence of mergers and acqusitions in the info-communications industries will be published in the new issue of the scientific journal Information & Management Volume 45, Issue 5.

Notre article sur la convergence des fusions et acquisitions dans les industries de l'info-communication va être publié dans le prochain numéro du journal scientifique Information & Management Volume 45, Issue 5.

Value creation in information-based industries through convergence: A study of U.S. mergers and acquisitions between 1993 and 2005In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 29 May 2008, Louis Rhéaume, Harjeet S. Bhabra

A B S T R A C T
According to the International Engineering Consortium (IEC), the realignment and consolidations currently underway in information-based industries is likely to result in the five traditional information industries (photography, publishing, computing, telecommunications and entertainment) converging into three new sectors: information content providers, information highways, and information appliances. We investigated the impact of mergers and acquisitions on value creation both within and across these sectors by estimating the stock market’s response to acquiring firms around the announcement date of their merger. Using data on 2421 mergers and acquisitions between 1993 and 2005 and employing the well-established event study methodology, we found that most acquirers received a target within the same sector or industry and that the related acquisition strategies brought synergistic gains resulting in positive wealth change for the acquiring firm’s shareholders. The few firms that pursued an unrelated diversification strategy that lowered operating risk experienced no significant change in shareholder wealth. Our results contrasted with the zero or negative wealth change found for
acquiring firms in general (as reported in the finance literature) but were consistent with the positive wealth change for acquirers in the telecommunications industry found in recent studies.