The Impact of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act on Firms Going Private

We study the impact of Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Act on the characteristics of firms going private based upon a sample of 147 companies during the period of June 13, 2000 to October 3, 2003. We partition the sample into pre-SOX and post-SOX periods, and cluster analysis is employed to identify firms with similar characteristics. One group of firms is identified before the SOX Act, while two groups of firms are identified after the Act. Parametric and non-parametric tests confirm a small group of firms going private with characteristics consistent with the contention that SOX Act drives these firms private due to heavy monitoring cost.