EIRC Internal Seminar – Daniela Schoch on Mergers and Acquisitions in the Data Economy
Date: Tuesday, October 11th, 2022
Time: 12:00 to 13:30
Paper by: Daniela Schoch
Discussant: Alexander Groh
EIRC started its series of internal seminars in the new academic year with a paper presentation by Daniela Schoch. She presented her ongoing work on “Mergers and Acquisitions in the Data Economy” and received challenging and constructive feedback from the audience as well as a fabulous review by Alexander Groh.
“Mergers and Acquisitions in the Data Economy” by Daniela Schoch
Abstract:
Interest in data intensive firms like Google and Facebook is prevalent. Still, discussions about them are up to now mostly theoretical or anecdotal. This study empirically analyses the relationship between firms’ data intensity and M&A activity. Using text-based measures to identify data intensive firms, I find that data intensity is positively related to M&A activity. More specifically, data generators are more likely to become acquirers, whereas data analysis and storage companies are more likely to become targets. Announcement effects of data firm M&A are on average not different from zero. Further, results show that data firms acquire particularly often rather small, non-public companies, indicating evidence for pre-emptive M&A activity.