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2021ΒΆ

Download M&A Deals from SDC Platinum

Thomson One Banker SDC Platinum database provides comprehensive M&A transaction data from early 1980s, and is perhaps the most widely used M&A database in the world.

This post documents the steps of downloading M&A deals from the SDC Platinum database. Specifically, I show how to download the complete M&A data where:

  • both the acquiror and the target are US firms,
  • the acquiror is a public firm or a private firm,
  • the target is a public firm, a private firm, or a subsidiary,
  • the deal value is at least $1m, and
  • the form of the deal is a acquisition, a merger or an acquisition of majority interest.

Specification Curve Analysis

Motivation

More often than not, empirical researchers need to argue that their chosen model specification reigns. If not, they need to run a battery of tests on alternative specifications and report them. The problem is, researchers can fit a few tables each with a few models in the paper at best, and it's extremely hard for readers to know whether the reported results are being cherry-picked.

So, why not run all possible model specifications and find a concise way to report them all?