Finance Seminar（2020-03)

Topic: Technology Development and Corporate Mergers

Speaker: Danqing Mei, Columbia Business School

Time: Friday, 17 January,09:00-10:30

Location: Room 217, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract:

I examine the motives as well as consequences of merger-and-acquisition (M&A) transactions between companies with varying degrees of technological overlap. High-overlap deals, with more collaboration between inventors from the merging companies, produce more patents and go deeper in the existing fields. In contrast, low-overlap deals, with a higher percentage of new inventors, experience larger technology shifts and develop patents in unexplored areas with higher commercial value. Importantly, M&A completion facilitates technology transformation to a greater degree than the two companies, especially pairs with low overlap, could have accomplished on their own. Overall, the direction of innovation is an important motive for technology-driven acquisitions.

Introduction:

Danqing Mei is a Ph.D. candidate in Finance at Columbia Business School. His primary research interest is in empirical corporate finance, with a special focus on innovation and merger and acquisition. His job market paper analyzes the low-overlap technology acquisition strategy and documents that the low-overlap deals promote large directional shifts and facilitate the firms to explore fresh new areas. Before Ph.D., he earns a Master of Science in Financial Economics at Columbia Business School and a Bachelor in Accounting and Finance at the University of Hong Kong.

Your participation is warmly welcomed!