The influence of Diversification and M&A Accounting on Firm Value

Using a sample of 45,283 firm year observations between 1993–2012, I examine the influence of different types of diversification and M&A accounting on firm value. I find that there are different explanations for earlier variations among documented discounts. I find different value effects for geographical and industrial diversification. These effects vary over time, with decreasing discounts for geographical diversification. Furthermore, I find different value effects of M&A accounting between industries. Controlling for firm fixed effects leads to insignificant results for most regressions, which indicates that underlying firm characteristics play an important role in the determination of the discount. Together, these findings explain earlier documented differences in the literature on the diversification discount