Do Golden Parachutes increase CEO’s DESIRE to be taken over? empirical evidence from australia and united states

Abstract

This study investigates whether the large payouts that are available to Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from a change in corporate control (takeover) do motivate some CEOs to seek acquisition of their firms by making them more attractive to a takeover bid. Using Australian and the US data, employing OLS regression, we report that there is a significant relationship between a CEOs change in control payments and their firm’s net cash levels (one of the key factors of takeover attractiveness). Our empirical results also indicate that CEOs desire their firms to be acquired by decreasing shareholders’ equity, thus supporting the view that change in control payments exist primarily for incumbent managers. Our findings provide support to the proposition that managers enjoy having large cash balances to be available to them as it allows them with greater opportunities to derive personal benefit from it. Therefore, our findings suggest that managers prefer to have large cash balances available to them to ensure their future wellbeing by setting up favourable terms in the control agreements.