AGENCY COSTS AND THE SIZE DISCOUNT: EVIDENCE FROM ACQUISITIONS

Many scholars have found a negative relationship between a firm’s size and its value, as measured by Tobin’s q. This result is called the size discount. There are hypotheses about why the size discount exists, but none have been rigorously empirically tested. This paper argues that the size discount is created by the inability of shareholders to minimize agency costs in larger companies. Statistical tests suggest that the size discount only appears in large firms with managers that impose excessive agency costs upon their shareholders. Empiricists who use Tobin’s q to proxy for growth opportunities may need a different proxy.Agency costs; size discount; acquisitions; corporate governance.

Обоснование актуальности использования в трансмиссии геохода эксцентриково-циклоидального зацепления

Рассматривается состояние вопроса по темпам формирования подземного пространства в России. Проводится анализ недостатков имеющегося проходческого оборудования (щиты, комбайны). Отмечается, что перспективным способом проведения горных выработок является геовинчестерная технология, базовым функциональным элементом которой является геоход. Утверждается, что одной из ключевых систем геохода, определяющей его работоспособность, является трансмиссия. Отмечается, что реализованная в настоящее время в опытном образце геохода трансмиссия с гидроцилиндрами, имеет, как свои достоинства, так и недостатки. Это не позволяет считать трансмиссию с гидроцилиндрами оптимальным решением для её использования, при разработке геоходов нового поколения. Проводится обзор различных видов зубчатых зацеплений и делаются выводы о перспективности их применения в трансмиссии геохода

Agency costs and the size discount: evidence from acquisitions

Many scholars have found a negative relationship between a firm’s size and its value, as measured by Tobin’s q. This result is called the size discount. There are hypotheses about why the size discount exists, but none have been rigorously empirically tested. This paper argues that the size discount is created by the inability of shareholders to minimize agency costs in larger companies. Statistical tests suggest that the size discount only appears in large firms with managers that impose excessive agency costs upon their shareholders. Empiricists who use Tobin’s q to proxy for growth opportunities may need a different proxy.Muchos académicos han encontrado una relación negativa entre el tamaño de la firma y su valor, calculada según el q de Tobin. El resultado se llama el descuento por tamaño. Existen múltiples hipótesis que tratan de explicar por qué el descuen-to por tamaño se produce, pero ninguna ha sido empíricamente examinada con rigurosidad. Este estudio argumenta que el descuento por tamaño se crea debido a la inhabilidad de los accionistas para minimizar los costos de agencia en las grandes empresas. Las pruebas estadísticas sugieren que el descuento por tamaño solo aparece en las empresas grandes con gerentes que imponen costos de agencia excesivos a los accionistas. Los empíricos que usan el q de Tobin para representar factores de oportunidades de crecimiento necesitarán un factor diferente

How do Acquirers Choose between Mergers and Tender Offers?

Tender offers provide the advantage of substantially faster completion times than mergers. However, a tender offer signals to the target higher demand for its shares and raises its reservation price. In equilibrium, bidders tradeoff speed and cost. Consistent with this theory, we show that deals in more competitive environments and deals with fewer external impediments on execution are more likely to be structured as tender offers. Tender offers also require higher premiums than mergers. Finally, the rivals of the bidding firm realize significantly lower announcement returns and subsequent operating performance in tender offers than in mergers

Beyond a Tube of Red Lipstick: An Economic Valuation of Estee Lauder and the Beauty Industry

The current valuation of the beauty industry is approximately $532 billion, yet this industry is not commonly suggested by investment professionals as a way to add diversification into their investors’ portfolios. The current craze of the market is technology and fossil fuels, but the beauty industry has remained a major player in consumer spending patterns throughout time. Through examining the historical financial statements of the publicly-traded cosmetic conglomerate Estēe Lauder, as well as several of its competitors, I modeled the future valuation of Estēe Lauder using the Discounted Free Cash Flow and Comparable Firm Multiples models. This analysis demonstrated how large changes in the overall market impacted their value and key financial metrics, as well as their historical growth trends and potential for future expansion. I also explored where the beauty industry stands today and the kinds of changes that could disrupt the industry in the future. In order to explore these questions and create my models, I used financial databases such as Mergent Online and the SEC’s EDGAR, different modeling techniques, expert articles, personal reflection, and financial statement analysis methods to ultimately develop a working Excel model and written thesis report. My work encapsulates the constant presence of the beauty industry within consumer spending habits, as it is only slightly impacted by changes in the larger market relative to many other industries considered to be “non-essentials.” It also highlights the way in which investors ought to consider exploring the beauty and cosmetic industry as a way to diversify their portfolios to create lower unsystematic risk. The focus of this report could allow for greater exploration by investors into untraditional industries and companies, particularly within beauty, and encourage further education on how social media trends could impact industries beyond beauty

NIRCAM image simulations for NGST wavefront sensing

The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) will be a segmented, deployable, infrared-optimized 6.5m space telescope. Its active primary segments will be aligned, co-phased, and then fine-tuned in order to deliver image quality sufficient for the telescope's intended scientific goals. Wavefront sensing used to drive this tuning will come from the analysis of focussed and defocussed images taken with its near-IR science camera, NIRCAM. There is a pressing need to verify that this will be possible with the near-IR detectors that are still under development for NGST. We create simulated NIRCAM images to test the maintenance phase of this plan. Our simulations incorporate Poisson and electronics read noise, and are designed to be able to include various detector and electronics non-linearities. We present our first such simulation, using known or predicted properties of HAWAII HgCdTe focal plane array detectors. Detector effects characterized by the Independent Detector Testing Laboratory will be included as they become available. Simulating InSb detectors can also be done within this framework in future. We generate Point-Spread Functions (PSF's) for a segmented aperture geometry with various wavefront aberrations, and convolve this with typical galaxy backgrounds and stellar foregrounds. We then simulate up-the-ramp (MULTIACCUM in HST parlance) exposures with cosmic ray hits. We pass these images through the HST NICMOS `CALNICA' calibration task to filter out cosmic ray hits. The final images are to be fed to wavefront sensing software, in order to find the ranges of exposure times, filter bandpass, defocus, and calibration star magnitude required to keep the NGST image within its specifications

Biblical Creatures: The Animal as an Object of Interpretation in Pre-Modern Christian and Jewish Hermeneutic Traditions

This issue of Interfaces explores the question of how Jewish and Christian authors in pre-modern Latin Europe thought and wrote about some of the animals mentioned in the Bible. To them, thinking about animals was a way of thinking about what it means to be human, to perceive the world, and to worship God and his creation. Animals' nature, animals' actions and animals' virtues or shortcomings were used as symbols and metaphors for describing human behavior, human desires, human abilities and disabilities, and positive or negative inclinations or traits of character. Both Christian and Jewish medieval and early modern scholars wondered about how they could possibly delve into the deeper layers of meaning they assumed any textual or extra-textual animal to convey. Not surprisingly, they often had to deal with the fact that a specific animal was of interest to members of both religious communities. A comparison between Jewish and Christian ways of reading and interpreting biblical passages featuring animals shows what the two hermeneutic traditions had in common, what separated them, and how they influenced each other, depending on the historical context in which the authors worked. The papers in this issue of Interfaces cover a wide range of animal species, such as the dove, the stag, the unicorn, the elephant, the crocodile, the lion, the hyena, the raven, the hare, and the dog as medieval and early modern authors and illuminators portrayed and interpreted them. Since several themes come up in more than one paper concerning different kinds of animals, this issue groups its papers in three sections. These sections deal with divine creatures (mediators between humankind and God, symbols for the human believer, agents of heaven); exotic creatures (animals in different parts of the world, encounters between humans and animals in past times, animals with extraordinary appearances and properties); and social creatures (transgressive and pious animals, animals used to demonstrate obedience or to facilitate transgression, animals as symbols for conflict or cooperation)

Long-Term Safety of PEGylated Coagulation Factor VIII in the Immune-Deficient Rowett Nude Rat

Turoctocog alfa pegol (N8-GP) is a glycoPEGylated human recombinant factor VIII for the treatment of hemophilia A. The safety profile of rFVIII, and polyethylene glycols (PEG) technology, is well-established. Conducting long-term toxicity studies in animals using human proteins can be complicated by anti-drug antibody (ADA) development. To evaluate long-term safety of N8-GP, 26-and 52-week toxicity studies were conducted in immune-deficient rats dosed intravenously every fourth day with 0, 50, 150, 500, or 1200 IU/kg N8-GP. Observations included clinical observations, body weight, ophthalmoscopy, hematology, chemistry, coagulation, urinalysis, toxicokinetics, antibody analysis, and macroscopic/microscopic organ examination. Immunohistochemical staining examined the distribution of PEG in the brain. No adverse test item-related findings were seen and PEG was not detected in the brain. Exposure was confirmed for ∼75% of the animals dosed with 500 and 1200 IU/kg N8-GP; the high lower limit of quantification of the bioanalysis assay prevented confirmation of exposure in the lower doses. A small number of animals developed ADAs, and the proportion of animals surviving until scheduled termination was >80%. N8-GP was well tolerated, and the immunedeficient rat proved suitable for testing long-term toxicity of human proteins that are immunogenic in animals

Long-Term Safety of PEGylated Coagulation Factor VIII in the Immune-Deficient Rowett Nude Rat

Turoctocog alfa pegol (N8-GP) is a glycoPEGylated human recombinant factor VIII for the treatment of hemophilia A. The safety profile of rFVIII, and polyethylene glycols (PEG) technology, is well-established. Conducting long-term toxicity studies in animals using human proteins can be complicated by anti-drug antibody (ADA) development. To evaluate long-term safety of N8-GP, 26- and 52-week toxicity studies were conducted in immune-deficient rats dosed intravenously every fourth day with 0, 50, 150, 500, or 1200 IU/kg N8-GP. Observations included clinical observations, body weight, ophthalmoscopy, hematology, chemistry, coagulation, urinalysis, toxicokinetics, antibody analysis, and macroscopic/microscopic organ examination. Immunohistochemical staining examined the distribution of PEG in the brain. No adverse test item-related findings were seen and PEG was not detected in the brain. Exposure was confirmed for ~75% of the animals dosed with 500 and 1200 IU/kg N8-GP; the high lower limit of quantification of the bioanalysis assay prevented confirmation of exposure in the lower doses. A small number of animals developed ADAs, and the proportion of animals surviving until scheduled termination was >80%. N8-GP was well tolerated, and the immune-deficient rat proved suitable for testing long-term toxicity of human proteins that are immunogenic in animals

Do Herbivores Eavesdrop on Ant Chemical Communication to Avoid Predation?

Strong effects of predator chemical cues on prey are common in aquatic and marine ecosystems, but are thought to be rare in terrestrial systems and specifically for arthropods. For ants, herbivores are hypothesized to eavesdrop on ant chemical communication and thereby avoid predation or confrontation. Here I tested the effect of ant chemical cues on herbivore choice and herbivory. Using Margaridisa sp. flea beetles and leaves from the host tree (Conostegia xalapensis), I performed paired-leaf choice feeding experiments. Coating leaves with crushed ant liquids (Azteca instabilis), exposing leaves to ant patrolling prior to choice tests (A. instabilis and Camponotus textor) and comparing leaves from trees with and without A. instabilis nests resulted in more herbivores and herbivory on control (no ant-treatment) relative to ant-treatment leaves. In contrast to A. instabilis and C. textor, leaves previously patrolled by Solenopsis geminata had no difference in beetle number and damage compared to control leaves. Altering the time A. instabilis patrolled treatment leaves prior to choice tests (0-, 5-, 30-, 90-, 180-min.) revealed treatment effects were only statistically significant after 90- and 180-min. of prior leaf exposure. This study suggests, for two ecologically important and taxonomically diverse genera (Azteca and Camponotus), ant chemical cues have important effects on herbivores and that these effects may be widespread across the ant family. It suggests that the effect of chemical cues on herbivores may only appear after substantial previous ant activity has occurred on plant tissues. Furthermore, it supports the hypothesis that herbivores use ant chemical communication to avoid predation or confrontation with ants