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Firm Size, Serial and Non-Serial Acquisition, and Stockholder Wealth

We find that first-time acquisitions and repeat acquisitions should be separated when examining the ‘size effect’ in acquiring firm returns. First, the lower returns to larger acquirers are driven by repeat acquisitions. Second, larger and better performing firms are especially likely to do repeat acquisitions. First-time acquisitions are more defensive in nature. Third, failure to account for self-selection in the acquisitions market induces downward bias in the returns to larger repeat acquirers. Fourth, repeat acquirers, and especially larger repeat acquirers, do relatively smaller acquisitions. Our results suggest that larger repeat acquirers do not disadvantage their shareholders when announcing acquisitions.