Research On Media Attention Effect Of Major M&A Events

The media not only sets up a bridge for information dissemination,but also acts as a catcher in the capital market.Nowadays,M&A activities are surging,and the impact of media coverage on M&A market reaction is also the focus of attention from all walks of life.As a new and transitional market,what is the media attention effect of major mergers and acquisitions? Does the attention formed by different types of media coverage have different effects and how does it affect the short-term and long-term market performance of mergers and acquisitions? Whether the media attention effect before and after the first announcement of major mergers and acquisitions is different,these issues are in urgent need of in-depth study.The research carried out in this paper includes: First,reading and combing the relevant literature of the media in the capital market,taking into account the differences in the timing of the first announcement date of the M&A event into account,with information asymmetry,investor cognition hypothesis,investor attention and media governance as theoretical basis,the mechanism of the impact of media reports surrounding the declaration day on the market performance of M&A companies was explored.Secondly,we select the M&A companies of2011-2015 years' A shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen as the research object,to test the effect of media coverage on major mergers and acquisitions,and further examine the influence of media tone on M&A and media coverage on M&A premium,and analyze the governance function of media coverage.Finally,this paper puts forward some inspirations from shaping media freedom environment,regulating media competition,investor decision-making and corporate governance.The final empirical results show that the attention effect of the number of media coverage is negative,whether in the secrecy stage before the M&A or in the public stage,whether in the short or long term.The focus on the number of media coverage brings negative market performance.The total number of media coverage has a significant negative impact on the long-term market performance of listed companies.The attention effect test of the number of media coverage shows the media's mining and dissemination of the company's information,but the effect of the governance is not obvious;The attention effect of the number of negative media coverage before the announcement of a major M&A event is negative.The negative media coverage before the major M&A announcements has no effect on the short-term market reaction of listed companies,but has a significant negative impact on the performance oflong-term market changes.The attention effect of the number of negative media coverage after M&A declaration is negative.The number of negative media coverage after major M&A is mainly negatively related to long-term performance changes.The attention effect of negative media coverage increment of major mergers and acquisitions is not significant;the attention effect of media coverage increment is positive.The increment of media coverage before and after major M&A has a significant positive impact on the long-term market performance of the listed companies,reflecting the corporate governance function of the media.This study can provide references for investors,acquirers and media professionals.