An acquiring firm typically has two ways to pay a target firm: cash and stock. Payment with stock implies that any risk involved in the deal is shared with the target firm’s investors (Hansen, 1987; Martin, 1996). When acquirers pay targets with a high percentage of cash, this provides a signal to investors that managers have strong beliefs in the quality of the transaction and have high expectations for post-acquisition performance (King et al., 2004). In contrast, stock payment is associated with a heightened degree of risk and mirrors the lack of acquirers’ confidence on creating synergistic value from a deal (Schijven & Hitt, 2012). Thus, compared to deals paid largely with stock, deals paid largely with cash are perceived to be of a higher quality by investors and are associated with higher announcement returns (Loughran & Vijh, 1997; Travlos, 1987).