The Impact of Antitrust Litigation on Shareholder Return

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The hypothesis that antitrust litigation will redistribute economic power is examined using an event study framework. District and appellate court findings involving firms litigating antitrust issues and the Telex v. IBM case are examined. The results indicated that shareholders of firms involved in the litigation experienced decreases (increases) in return when either court finding was unfavorable (favorable). The Telex v. IBM results indicated that the district court's finding against IBM resulted in significant positive abnormal returns for computer industry firms. Abnormal negative returns were also found in the period surrounding the appellate court reversal.