Home biased? : A spatial analysis of the domestic merging behavior of US firms

Using data of US domestic mergers and acquisitions transactions, this paper shows that acquirers have a preference for geographically proximate target companies. We measure the ‘home bias’ against benchmark portfolios of hypothetical deals where the potential targets consist of firms of similar size in the same four-digit SIC code that have been targets in other transactions at about the same time or firms that have been listed at a stock exchange at that time. There is a strong and consistent home bias for M&A transactions in the US, which is significantly declining during the observation period, i.e. between 1990 and 2004. At the same time, the average distances between target and acquirer increase articulately. The home bias is stronger for small and relatively opaque target companies suggesting that local information is the decisive factor in explaining the results. Acquirers that diversify into new business lines also display a stronger preference for more proximate targets. With an event study we show that investors react relatively better to proximate acquisitions than to distant ones. That reaction is more important and becomes significant in times when the average distance between target and acquirer becomes larger, but never becomes economically significant. We interpret this as evidence for the familiarity hypothesis brought forward by Huberman (2001): Acquirers know about the existence of proximate targets and are more likely to merge with them without necessarily being better informed. However, when comparing the best and the worst deals, we are able to show a dramatic difference in distances and home bias: The most successful deals display on average a much stronger home bias and distinctively smaller distance between acquirer and target than the least successful deals. Proximity in M&A transactions therefore is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success. The paper contributes to the growing literature on the role of distance in financial decisions

Towards the elimination of infectious endogenous Banana streak virus sequences from Musa balbisiana

Infectious endogenous sequences of at least 3 distinct Banana streak virus species are present in the genome of Musa balbisiana spp [1, 2], which are important progenitors for breeding improved banana varieties. Once activated by biotic or abiotic stresses, these sequences can cause infection in natural and synthetic interspecific hybrids harbouring the M. balbisiana genome [3]. Therefore, infectious endogenous BSV (eBSV) sequences are currently the main constraint for breeding much needed banana and plantain interspecific hybrids and for exchanging Musa germplasm. The full genomic and genetic organization of eBSV sequences present in diploid M. balbisiana cultivar Pisang Klutuk Wulung (PKW) was recently elucidated [1, 4], showing that endogenous BSGFV, BSOLV and BSImV sequences in PKW result from a single integration event. This work also showed that integration of infectious eBSGFV and eBSOLV is di-allelic whereas that of infectious eBSImV is monoallelic. In the case of eBSGFV and eBSOLV, only one allele is infectious. Taking advantage of recently designed primer sets [1, 3; Baurens, unpublished], we have undertaken the characterization of eBSOLV, eBSGFV and eBSImV in the M. balbisiana accessions of CIRAD Guadeloupe's germplasm collection. This work unveiled important differences between accessions, which were shown to harbor all combinations of infectious and non infectious alleles for one or several distinct BSV species. Some accessions were even found to be exempt from eBSImV. These results were confirmed biologically, by following the kinetics of expression of infectious eBSV sequences in various genotypes during cell culture, which is the most potent abiotic stress activating infectious eBSV sequences. Based on these results, breeding improved M. balbisiana progenitors devoid of infectious eBSGfV and/or BSOLV sequences was undertaken by segregating the corresponding infectious and non infectious alleles. This was achieved in several selfed and/or double haploid lines. This work paves the way to the elimination of infectious eBSV sequences from M. balbisiana progenitors, and to the safe use of M. balbisiana genitors for creating interspecific banana and plantain hybrids. (Texte intégral

Do yams (Dioscorea spp.) host endogenous viral sequences ?

Yams (Dioscoreae sp) are important food commodities in tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, the Caribbean, South America and the Pacific where they play a key role in food security. Yams are vegetatively propagated crops. The use of infected vegetative propagules and uncontrolled introductions of infected germplasm promotes the spread of viruses in yam-growing areas, causing significant reduction in tuber yield and quality. Control strategies rely primarily on diagnostic and the use of virus-free germplasm, but their implementation is currently hampered by the high prevalence level of potyviruses and badnaviruses in yam germplasm and the overall partial knowledge of virus species infecting yams. Moreover, the presence of endogenous pararetrovirus sequences (EPRVs) in Dioscorea spp, which is suspected [1] but has not yet been formally demonstrated, could also hamper the implementation of reliable indexing tests and control strategies, especially if yams host infectious EPRVs. The presence of EPRVs in cultivated and wild yams was investigated in the yam germplasm collection of the Tropical Plant Biological Ressource Center (CRB-PT) managed by INRA in Guadeloupe. This collection currently hosts 500 accessions representing 15 distinct species. PCR-based screenings were performed on Dioscorea alata, D. trifida, D. rotundata-cayenensis and wild yam accessions using badnavirus-specific primers [2], caulimovirus-specific primer [3] and primers specific of a newly described genus within the family Caulimoviridae tentatively named dionyvirus (Geering et al., unpublished). Phylogenetic analyses were performed, allowing a study of the diversity of yam badnavirus, caulimovirus and dionyvirus sequences. Southern blot experiments were also performed in order to explore the nature (endogenous vs episomal) of these sequences. (Texte intégral

Timelike and Spacelike Matter Inheritance Vectors in Specific Forms of Energy-Momentum Tensor

This paper is devoted to the investigation of the consequences of timelike and spacelike matter inheritance vectors in specific forms of energy-momentum tensor, i.e., for string cosmology (string cloud and string fluid) and perfect fluid. Necessary and sufficient conditions are developed for a spacetime with string cosmology and perfect fluid to admit a timelike matter inheritance vector, parallel to $u^a$ and spacelike matter inheritance vector, parallel to $x^a$. We compare the outcome with the conditions of conformal Killing vectors. This comparison provides us the conditions for the existence of matter inheritance vector when it is also a conformal Killing vector. Finally, we discuss these results for the existence of matter inheritance vector in the special cases of the above mentioned spacetimes.Comment: 27 pages, accepted for publication in Int. J. of Mod. Phys.

It's the market power, stupid! Stock return patterns in international bank M&A

This paper analyzes capital market reactions to international bank M&A. We investigate combined stock return patterns of targets, bidders, and their peers upon takeover announcement, and closing or withdrawal. We distinguish five common M&A hypotheses and relate characteristic and mutually exclusive abnormal stock return patterns to each hypothesis. We find that investors believe in gains through the exploitation of market power by the post-merger entity. In a multinomial logistic model we show that patterns related to market power significantly concur with large relative target size, intra-industry mergers, and increasing market concentration, suggesting a substantial lessening of competition through M&A. --M&A,Banks,Event Study,Peer Returns,Market Power

Europe integrates less than you think: Evidence from the market for corporate control in Europe and the US

National borders are still strong barriers for mergers and acquisitions in Europe. We estimate a gravity equation model based on NUTS 2-regions and find that the restraining impact of national borders decreased by about a third between 1990 and 2007. However, there has been no significant change since 1997, i.e., two years before the introduction of the Euro. To benchmark our results we run a corresponding analysis within the United States using the ten federal OMB regions as country equivalents. The 'quasi border'-effect in the US is weaker than in the EU and even declines more during the same time period. We conclude that European integration policy has little effect on fostering cross-border transactions. --European integration,corporate control,border effects

NL-based automated software requirements elicitation and specification

This paper presents a novel approach to automate the process of software requirements elicitation and specification. The software requirements elicitation is perhaps the most important phase of software development as a small error at this stage can result in absurd software designs and implementations. The automation of the initial phase (such as requirement elicitation) phase can also contribute to a long standing challenge of automated software development. The presented approach is based on Semantic of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR), an OMG’s recent standard. We have also developed a prototype tool SR-Elicitor (an Eclipse plugin), which can be used by software engineers to record and automatically transform the natural language software requirements to SBVR software requirements specification. The major contribution of the presented research is to demonstrate the potential of SBVR based approach, implemented in a prototype tool, proposed to improve the process of requirements elicitation and specification

It's the market power, stupid! Stock return patterns in international bank M&A

This paper analyzes capital market reactions to international bank M&A. We investigate combined stock return patterns of targets, bidders, and their peers upon takeover announcement, and closing or withdrawal. We distinguish five common M&A hypotheses and relate characteristic and mutually exclusive abnormal stock return patterns to each hypothesis. We find that investors believe in gains through the exploitation of market power by the post-merger entity. In a multinomial logistic model we show that patterns related to market power significantly concur with large relative target size, intra-industry mergers, and increasing market concentration, suggesting a substantial lessening of competition through M&A