Valuation adjustment mechanism has been widely applied in acquisitions of listed companies in China today, and is usually agreed upon future financial performance indicators of acquired companies (mostly net income). This paper examines how changes of key contents of VAM agreement affect firms’ ability to meet performance commitments from the perspective of incentive effects. Empirical results show that as the performance goals set in VAM agreement becomes higher, the incentive for management to meet performance commitments will initially increase and then decrease, so that the ratio of actual profits to promised profits for target firms will reach peak at some reasonable performance goal and then decrease. Second, as the level of the information asymmetry between buyer and seller turns higher, the incentive effect of performance goals becomes lower. Third, compared with cash-based compensation, stock-based compensation shows significantly higher incentive effects on promisors thus increasing the ability for target firms to achieve performance commitments.

Under the background of the "new normal" of China's economy and the contraction of traditional financial sector, the development of Internet finance provides new financing channels for SMEs and individual financial needs. But with rapid development of the Internet finance, the overall risk also appears gradually as well as the platform differentiation appears more evidently. China's Internet financial industry enters the stage of standardization development. In order to effectively prevent and resolve Internet financial risks and create a good internet financial environment, we need to identify the risk factors of Internet financial industry. Through reference carding of the existing literature, this paper proposes a research hypothesis that the industrial economic background is negatively related to the operating risk of the Internet financial platform. After descriptive statistical analysis of the current situation of the Internet financial industry in China, this paper collects 600 P2P net-lending platforms data manually, and uses Probit model to test the research hypothesis. Ceteris paribus, the result show that compared with the platform without industrial economic background, the risk probability of the industrial economic background platform will be reduced by 6.5 percentage points， and there is no regional difference in this result. This paper explains the result from two layers which are the relieving information asymmetry and the platform’s reputation mechanism. The study also finds that in addition to the industrial economic background, the P2P platform's registered capital, operation time, whether the platform funds have the corresponding third-party guarantee and the information disclosure of platform executives will significantly reduce business risk probability of the platforms. The above research conclusions also passed the robust test. Finally, this paper makes a case analysis of the two Internet Financial platforms in Suning Finance and Tuniu Finance, which have different industrial economic background and mode of operation. It also summarizes the risk control system.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been playing a very significant role in the capital market. Many companies regard mergers and acquisitions as an important way for their business expansion and transformation. This paper begins with a review of literature on firm’s motivations of and outcomes in M&A, and followed by a critical examination of three case studies of actual M&A transactions based on the insights provided from the literature review. For each case study, a firm’s motivations and related managerial initiatives for M&A activities were examined, followed by an assessment of the firm’s post M&A performance results. This allows the study to discerns the insights of why and how a firm proceed in its M&A transactions from its strategic intent to its post M&A managerial actions. Collectively, the results show that the key drivers for a firm’s M&A successes rest on a firm’s abilities to manage the M&A activities consistent with its strategic intent (e.g., creating synergies or transformation through diversification) and followed by its post M&A integration efforts in achieving its strategic intent.

This study investigates the performance effects of cross-industry mergers and acquisitions (M&A) using a sample of firms listed in China’s Growth Entrepreses Market (GEM). Compared to firms listed in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, firms listed in the GEM are much smaller and tend to derive the majority of their revenues from a single industry. I first analyze the motives for firms listed in the GEM to engage in M&As and propose a set of factors that may influence their likelihood of M&A activities. Using data on 55 cross-industry M&As between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016, I find that investor generally responded positively in short-term, as indicated by the positive accumulated abonormal returns over the first five trading days following the announcements. Meanwhile, I found no evidence that investors benefited from cross-industry M&As in long-term over three years after the event. Further analysis suggests that the short-term effects of cross-industry M&As by GEM listed firms were influenced by the target firm’s market valuation, whether the M&A was paid by cash, the amount of the payment, and the degree of difference between the acquiring firm’s and the target firm’s industries. These findings have important implications for the investors and senior executives of firms listed in the GEM.