Does Corporate Diversification Reduce Firm Risk? Evidence from Diversifying Acquisitions

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically whether corporate diversification reduces the risk of the diversifying firm. We investigate this issue using a sample of diversifying acquisitions and various risk measures. We find that corporate diversification tends to decrease the risk of some firms but increase the risk of many others. On average corporate diversification does not lower firm risk. These findings call into question the notion that corporate diversification strictly reduces firm risk.