The Stock Market Evaluation of IPO-Firm Takeovers

We conduct an event study to assess the stock market evaluation of public takeover announcements. Unlike the majority of previous research, we specifically focus on acquisitions targeted at newly public IPO-firms and show that the stock market positively evaluates these M&As as R&D. However, bidders' abnormal announcement returns are significantly lower for takeovers directed at targets with critical intangible assets and innovative capabilities inalienably bound to their initial owners than for those that have internally accumulated respective resources and capabilities. We explain these findings with the acquirer's post-acquisition dependence on continued access to the IPO-firm founders' target-specific human capital. Our results contribute to literature in that they show that the stock market perceives these potential impediments to successful exploitation of acquired strategic resources and thus identify a potential cause for heretofore mostly inconsistent evidence on bidder abnormal returns in corporate takeovers found in previous research

A spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientation on technological innovativeness:an outlook of universities and research based spin offs

partially_open5siBy shifting towards Romer’s (Am Econ Rev 94:1002–1037, 1986) economy and so the spread of knowledge economy, universities started to adopt a collaborative approach with their entrepreneurial ecosystem. They turn out to be risk taker, autonomous, proactive, competitive, and innovative. In a nutshell, they are entrepreneurial oriented with the aim to generate new innovative ventures, known as research-based spin offs. Doubly, this has induced an improvement of technology transfer and the degree of entrepreneurship in the current knowledge economy. However there still is a paucity of studies on the spill over effect of entrepreneurial orientated universities and research-based spin off on technology transfer need to be more explored. Therefore, the article investigates the link between entrepreneurial orientation and such spill overs by offering an outlook of two universities and two research-based spin offs in the United Kingdom. The scope is to provide a deep view of technological innovativeness in a research context, entrepreneurial oriented. Our research suggests that entrepreneurial attitude has become an imperative to succeed in the context where British institutions currently operate. Entrepreneurship brings the necessary technological innovation to the university and its students, which results in better positioning of the university at national and international levels, with the subsequent impact on their ability to attract not only new students and academics but also funding to conduct their research.openScuotto, Veronica; Del Giudice, Manlio; Garcia-Perez, Alexeis; Orlando, Beatrice; Ciampi, FrancescoScuotto, Veronica; Del Giudice, Manlio; Garcia-Perez, Alexeis; Orlando, Beatrice; Ciampi, Francesc

Progression of atherosclerosis in ApoE-deficient mice that express distinct molecular forms of TNF-alpha

TNFalpha (TNF) critically regulates inflammation-driven atherosclerosis. Because the transmembrane (tmTNF) and soluble (sTNF) forms of TNF possess distinct immuno-modulatory properties, we hypothesized that they might differentially regulate atherosclerosis progression. Three groups of male ApoE(-/-) mice were studied: one expressing wild-type TNF (WT-TNF); one expressing exclusively a mutated non-cleavable form of TNF (KI-TNF); and one deficient in TNF (KO-TNF). Mice aged 5 weeks were fed the high-fat diet for 5 (T5) and 15 weeks (T15) or a standard chow diet for 15 weeks. At T5, in mice fed the high-fat diet, no significant differences in lesion area were observed among the three groups, either in valves or in aortas. At T15, lesion areas in valves were significantly lower in KO-TNF mice compared with those in WT-TNF mice, whereas in KI-TNF mice, they were intermediate between KO- and WT-TNF mice but not significantly different from these two groups. In aortas, lesions in KI-TNF were comparable to those of KO-TNF, both being significantly lower than those in WT-TNF. Theses differences were not linked to circulating lipids, or to macrophage, actin, and collagen contents of lesions. At T15, in mice fed the chow diet, lesion areas in valves and the aortic arch were not significantly different between the three groups. Levels of IL-6, IFNgamma, IL-10, and Foxp3 mRNAs in spleens and production of IL-6, IL-10, MCP-1, RANTES, and TNFR-2 by peritoneal macrophages at T15 of the high-fat diet showed a decrease in pro-inflammatory status, more marked in KO-TNF than in KI-TNF mice. Apoptosis was reduced only in KO-TNF mice. In conclusion, these data show that TNF effects on atherosclerosis development are detectable at stages succeeding fatty streaks and that wild-type TNF is superior to tmTNF alone in promoting atherosclerosis. TNF-dependent progression of atherosclerosis is probably linked to the differential production of pro-inflammatory mediators whether tmTNF is preponderant or essentially cleaved. Copyright (c) 2008 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley ; Sons, Ltd