Impact of Shortly Acquired IPO Firms on ICT Industry Concentration

Now, it is a stylized fact that a small number of technology firms such as Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and a few others have become larger and dominant players in an industry. Coupled with the rise of these leading firms, we have also observed that a large number of young firms have become an acquisition target in their early IPO stages. This indeed results in a sharp decline in the number of new entries in public exchanges although a series of policy reforms have been promulgated to foster competition through an increase in new entries. Given the observed industry trend in recent decades, a number of studies have reported increased concentration in most developed countries. However, it is less understood as to what caused an increase in industry concentration. In this paper, we uncover the mechanisms by which industries have become concentrated over the last decades by tracing the changes in industry concentration associated with a firm's status change in its early IPO stages. To this end, we put emphasis on the case in which firms are acquired shortly after they went public. Especially, with the transition to digital-based economies, it is imperative for incumbent firms to adapt and keep pace with new ICT and related intelligent systems. For instance, after the acquisition of a young firm equipped with AI-based solutions, an incumbent firm may better respond to a change in customer taste and preference by integrating acquired AI solutions and analytics skills into multiple business processes. Accordingly, it is not unusual for young ICT firms become an attractive acquisition target. To examine the role of M&As involved with young firms in reshaping the level of industry concentration, we identify a firm's status in early post-IPO stages over the sample periods spanning from 1990 to 2016 as follows: i) being delisted, ii) being standalone firms and iii) being acquired. According to our analysis, firms that have conducted IPO since 2000s have been acquired by incumbent firms at a relatively quicker time than those that did IPO in previous generations. We also show a greater acquisition rate for IPO firms in the ICT sector compared with their counterparts in other sectors. Our results based on multinomial logit models suggest that a large number of IPO firms have been acquired in their early post-IPO lives despite their financial soundness. Specifically, we show that IPO firms are likely to be acquired rather than be delisted due to financial distress in early IPO stages when they are more profitable, more mature or less leveraged. For those IPO firms with venture capital backup have also become an acquisition target more frequently. As a larger number of firms are acquired shortly after their IPO, our results show increased concentration. While providing limited evidence on the impact of large incumbent firms in explaining the change in industry concentration, our results show that the large firms' effect on industry concentration are pronounced in the ICT sector. This result possibly captures the current trend that a few tech giants such as Alphabet, Apple and Facebook continue to increase their market share. In addition, compared with the acquisitions of non-ICT firms, the concentration impact of IPO firms in early stages becomes larger when ICT firms are acquired as a target. Our study makes new contributions. To our best knowledge, this is one of a few studies that link a firm's post-IPO status to associated changes in industry concentration. Although some studies have addressed concentration issues, their primary focus was on market power or proprietary software. Contrast to earlier studies, we are able to uncover the mechanism by which industries have become concentrated by placing emphasis on M&As involving young IPO firms. Interestingly, the concentration impact of IPO firm acquisitions are magnified when a large incumbent firms are involved as an acquirer. This leads us to infer the underlying reasons as to why industries have become more concentrated with a favor of large firms in recent decades. Overall, our study sheds new light on the literature by providing a plausible explanation as to why industries have become concentrated.

ICT 산업분야 신생기업의 IPO 이후 인수합병과 산업 집중도에 관한 연구

본 논문은 ICT 산업분야에서 신생기업이 기업공개(IPO) 이후 단기간 내에 기존 기업에 인수합병됨으로써 산업의 집중도가 높아지는 현상을 실증적으로 규명하였다. 이를 위해 1990년대 이후 기업공개를 한 4,938개 기업에 대해 산업분야를 구분하고 인수합병 여부에 따른 상태 변화를 추적하여 산업의 집중도에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 먼저 시기별로 분석한 결과, 2000년대 이후 기업들은 1990년대 기업들에 비해 상대적으로 단기간 내에 기존 기업에 인수합병된 것으로 나타났다. 그러나 이들 기업은 규모, 수익성 및 연구개발비 등이 시장에서 퇴출된 기업에 비해 양호한 것으로 나타났다. 또한 산업분야별로 분석한 결과, 동일한 산업분야로 인수합병되는 경우가 증가할수록 산업의 집중도 역시 증가한 것으로 나타났다. 그리고 산업분야별로 지배적 기업의 존재여부를 분석한 결과, 지배적 기업이 존재할 경우 인수합병이 산업의 집중도에 미치는 영향이 더 큰 것으로 나타났다. 특히 지배적 기업의 비중이 높은 ICT 분야에서 산업의 집중도에 미치는 영향이 더욱 크게 부각되는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 알파벳, 아마존 등이 공격적으로 신생기업을 인수합병하고 시장에서의 지배력을 확장시켜나가고 있는 ICT 산업분야의 최근 추세를 보여주고 있다. 또한 인공지능 및 데이터 애널리틱스 등 ICT 기술기반 신생기업이 인수된 경우 산업 집중도의 변동은 더 큰 폭으로 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 분석결과는 디지털 경제시대에 ICT 분야의 산업 집중도가 높아지는 요인의 하나로서 신생기업이 단기간 내에 인수합병되는 추세를 실증적으로 규명하였다는 점에서 의의가 있다.