The paper deals with the role of the stock market in innovative development, basically in case of the U. S. The author shows how the NASDAQ has provided tangible financial incentives for growth of high-tech industries, emphasizes the relationship between innovation and the financial sector, the importance of competition for capital in technological development. It is shown that the development of NASDAQ and increased competition of stock markets allowed high-tech U.S. companies to benefit from country’s strong financial sector and specialized market structures. The prerequisites for the successful emergence of biotech and ICT start-ups, as well as the venture market in the U.S. are still strongly connected with stock markets. However, the comparative analysis also revealed growing global competition from the Chinese stock markets. At the same time, in the last decade a new bubble is emerging on the U.S. stock market, which, as shown by the analysis of the median revenues of the major companies, differs from similar situations before the dot-com crisis and before the 2008–2009 crisis. Revenues of the largest companies in recent years have been growing along with their capitalization, which suggests that the bubble may take much longer to collapse than before. The author also shows the intensification of competition between stock exchanges and over-the-counter financing mechanisms for innovative companies: SME acquisitions by major corporations, intensification of mergers and acquisitions around the world. The role of mergers and acquisitions, which have become an alternative to IPOs, has become increasingly important over the past decade as a financing mechanism for innovative companies. In the last decade, the ICT-companies have dominated by market capitalization and gained sufficient market power to meet the demand for new developments and acquisitions of start-ups. This over-the-counter financing mechanism increases market uncertainty and may contribute to suboptimal solutions in the high-tech sector. However, the author found that the observed decline in U.S. IPOs is primarily affecting the ICT sector, while pharmaceutical and biotech companies continue to be actively listed.
Timing of Mergers and Acquisitions: Evidence from the Canadian Stock Market
