mergers from 1962 to 1996. Almost one‐third of the mergers display vertical relatedness.
Vertical merger activity is more intensive in the 1980s and 1990s and less so in the 1960s
and the 1970s. Vertical mergers generate positive wealth effects that are significantly larger
than those for diversifying mergers; the wealth effects in vertical mergers are comparable to
those in pure horizontal mergers.