Drivers of acquisition activity

The purpose of this study is to establish an understanding of the various factors drivingacquisition activity. The research problem is formulated as follows: What drivesacquisition activity? Drivers of acquisition activity can be grouped into micro, industry,and macro level drivers depending on whether they affect individual companies,industries, or economies overall, respectively. The literature review encompassesdrivers at all three levels in order to provide a comprehensive context. The empiricalanalysis focuses on assessing quantitative macro level drivers which are shown toexplain the majority of aggregate acquisition activity. The empirical part of this study uses multiple linear regression to assess the quantitativemacro level drivers of acquisition activity in Finland between 1992 and 2009. Data onthe quarterly number of acquisitions made by Finnish companies is sourced from SDCPlatinum. Data on the different macro level drivers is sourced from Datastream, Bank ofFinland, Statistics Finland, and the Confederation of Finnish Industries. The results indicate that quantitative macro level drivers explain around 75% of thevariability in aggregate acquisition activity. This study provides further insight into thetime lags at which different drivers affect acquisition activity. Drivers that improvecompanies’ financing ability precede high acquisition activity by four quarters. They arefollowed by drivers related to growing demand in the economy, which precede highacquisition activity by one quarter. Finally, high acquisition activity coincides with anoverall positive sentiment in the economy. This study also finds that inflation, whichhas not been found as a driver in previous literature, has a significant positiverelationship with acquisition activity, with no lag.