Topic: Technological Changes and the Evolution of IPO and Acquisition Activities

Speaker: Laurent Fresard, Professor of Finance, University of Lugano

Date: March 21st (Wednesday)

Time: 10:00-11:30am

Location: Building 4, Room 101

Language: English

Abstract:

We use textual analysis of 7.9 million patents from 1930 to 2010 to examine funding and evolutionary patterns of young private rms. We propose that three dimensions of firms' innovation-fluidity, complexity, and proximity to potential buyers-are related to which firms receive VC funding and experience long term outcomes of IPO, acquisition, or failure. We and that firms innovating in rapidly evolving (fluid) technologies or producing more complex patents are more likely to exit via IPO and less likely to fail or be acquired. Conversely, firms are more likely to be acquired when their innovation is similar to that of large publicly traded firms. In out of sample tests, these factors collectively explain roughly 20% of the well-known decline in IPOs and 60% of the rise in acquisitions since the mid-1990s.

About the speaker:

Laurent Fresard is Professor of Finance at University of Lugano. He received his Ph.D. from University of Neuchatel, Switzerland and works on topics in corporate finance, real effects of finance, product markets, industrial organization, international finance, mergers and acquisitions, cross-listings, innovation. His research has appeared in Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, Journal of Financial Economics and Review of Finance etc.