Stealth by Design: Strategic Stealth Acquisition Behavior in U.S. M&A Activity
This thesis studies how U.S. firms structure mergers and acquisitions to avoid antitrust review. Many deals cluster just below the Hart-Scott-Rodino threshold, showing evidence of “stealth acquisitions.” Private equity often appears in these deals, but cash financing is the main driver. Once cash is considered, the independent effect of private equity weakens. These results suggest that cash broadly enables stealth acquisitions and that policymakers may need to rethink relying solely on deal size for antitrust review.