Economic gains around mergers and acquisitions in the construction industry of the United States of America

Abstract

As waves of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have swept over American industrial business organizations, construction firms have been caught in the middle of the resulting turbulence. Nonetheless, no research has investigated these significant events in the construction industry. Built upon the financial theories and methodology, the overall success level of construction M&A transactions was assessed. The research findings, which were drawn from an analysis of 171 construction M&A transactions, indicate that the performance of construction M&A was positive at an insignificant level, as measured by equity market returns. Whereas the relationship between the type of diversification strategy and performance indicates that while the related diversification strategy has been slightly favored by both theories and empirical research findings over unrelated diversification, no significant performance difference was observed between two diversification strategies.Key words: mergers and acquisitions, diversification strategy, equity market returns.