Not All Friends Are Alike: A Categorization of Friendly Acquisitions Integrating the Acquired Firm Profile with the Acquirer's Approach

Although previous studies have examined the distinct motivations of acquirers and contrasted the differences between friendly and hostile acquisitions, the combination of the acquirer and target firm perspectives, particularly within friendly acquisitions, has not yet been addressed. By adopting a multidisciplinary approach and integrating the acquiring and acquired firms’ perspectives, this study identifies different types of friendly deals and investigates their impact on post‐acquisition performance. A unique dataset of 668 acquisitions was constructed by merging the Zephyr and Orbis databases. A regression analysis revealed that, in general, rescue and appealing targets obtain better post‐acquisition performance than average targets. The effect of rescue and appealing targets is accentuated by greater accumulated knowledge. Conversely, in partial acquisitions, the effect of rescue and appealing targets is diminished for high‐accumulated knowledge. This signal change of the knowledge‐moderating parameter implies that under general conditions, rescue and appealing targets outperform average targets. However, if the acquirer seeks to follow a collaborative approach to extract the accumulated knowledge of the target firm, then it is better to signal a more cooperative stance through a partial acquisition.