Share Repurchases and Intangible Assets

As predicted, firms with more intangible assets are more likely to announce open-market share repurchases and experience more positive announcement returns. Also as predicted, idle cash is positively related to repurchase announcement likelihood and returns are less positive for such announcements. Although information asymmetry not associated with intangible assets is negatively related to repurchase likelihood, announcement returns are positively related, as predicted. Repurchase likelihood is postively related to stock option plan size, as predicted, and contemporaneous divdend increases, but insignificantly related to book-to-market ratios. Announcement returns are positively related to book-tomarket ratios and negatively related to stock option plan size, as predicted. Increases in intangible assets associated with research and development and decreases in book-to-market ratios and preannouncement returns are significantly related to share repurchase announcement likelihood.