Corporate Takeover Targets

3Detection of Predictive Variables for Corporate Takeover: an Exploratory Study

This chapter presents an exploratory study aimed at identifying new predictors that favor the occurrence of a takeover bid, and which could improve the predictive ability of takeover prediction models. For this, practitioners of M&A, who have already participated (as part of their missions within companies) in the identification operations of several target firms, were consulted. This process was conducted using an online quantitative questionnaire. Close-ended questions on the impact of a particular economic or financial variable on the probability that a company is the subject of a takeover were included in the questionnaire, and one final open-ended question was included to reveal other predictors that may not have been cited among the close-ended questions. The questionnaire included a set of questions for which the answers should lead to better structure of takeover prediction models.

The first section of this chapter presents the general framework of our study, namely the theoretical positioning of our study, characteristics of the survey and the chosen data analysis methodology. The second section is dedicated to quantitative data analyses that enable the development of factors (or variable components) that favor the probability of being a takeover target.

3.1. Conceptual and empirical framework: theoretical positioning, survey characteristics and choice of data analysis method

The aim of ...