Study On The Influence Of M&A Goodwill On Stock Price Crash Risk

In recent years,China’s M&A market has steadily developed,making China the secondlargest global destination for M&A investments.M&A enables rapid resource integration,bringing about economies of scale for companies,which has attracted an increasing number of enterprises to enhance their performance through M&A.M&A events often serve as positive information transmitted to the capital market,but sometimes they become subjects of market speculation,triggering significant short-term increases in stock prices.Additionally,behind the recognition of significant amounts of goodwill in high-premium M&A deals,there may be hidden risks that are not easily discernible.The subsequent recognition of goodwill impairment due to high goodwill amounts can lead to a decline in company performance,a sharp drop in stock prices,seriously damaging investor interests,and impacting the stability of the capital market.In this context,this thesis takes all non-financial companies listed on the A-share market from 2010 to 2021 as the research sample.Firstly,empirical analysis is used to examine the impact of goodwill on the risk of stock price collapse.Secondly,from the perspective of accounting information transparency,the mediating role of accounting information transparency between goodwill and the risk of stock price collapse is explored.Furthermore,media attention is incorporated into the M&A scenario to analyze the moderating effect of media coverage on the relationship between goodwill and the risk of stock price collapse,and distinguish between positive and negative media coverage to investigate the heterogeneity of the moderating effects.Finally,this study further examines the heterogeneous effects of M&A goodwill on the risk of stock price collapse based on different goodwill asset size groups and different ownership structures.The empirical results show that:(1)Goodwill increases the risk of stock price collapse;(2)Accounting information transparency plays a partial mediating role between goodwill and the risk of stock price collapse;(3)Media coverage can alleviate the exacerbating effect of goodwill on the risk of stock price collapse,with this moderating effect mainly manifested in positive media coverage,while the moderating effect of negative media coverage on the relationship between goodwill and the risk of stock price collapse is not significant;(4)Further research reveals that the positive effect of goodwill on the risk of stock price collapse mainly comes from the group with a high level of goodwill assets,while this relationship is not significant in the low goodwill size group;(5)After distinguishing different ownership types,it is found that the promotional effect of goodwill on the risk of stock price collapse is significant only in nonstate-owned enterprises.By studying the impact of goodwill on the risk of stock price collapse,this thesis enriches the relevant literature on factors influencing stock price collapse risks and analyzes the pathway through which goodwill increases the risk of stock price collapse from the perspective of accounting information transparency.Additionally,by incorporating the media into the M&A scenario,it broadens the research on the influence of the media on the capital market.The research findings of this thesis have certain reference value for formulating reasonable M&A premiums,improving accounting information transparency,and leveraging the supervisory and governance role of the media in the capital market.