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Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 43 2017

Sales of private firms and the role of CEO compensation

Natasha Burns1; Jan Jindra2; Kristina Minnick3

1 The University of Texas at San Antonio · 2 United States Securities and Exchange Commission · 3 Bentley University

Abstract

We analyze the relation of private firms' CEO compensation with the probability of sale of a firm and its valuation at the time of the sale. Specifically, we study whether equity-based remuneration is consistent with compensating the CEO for effort related to selling the private firm, or with compensating for the illiquidity of the equity-based compensation for private firms. Using a sample of large private firms with public filings, we find that CEOs of IPO and acquired private firms have higher total and equity-based compensation than CEOs of firms that remain private. We also show that CEO compensation is positively related to the valuation premium of IPOs versus acquired firms.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.02.004
Volume
43
Pages
444-463
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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