Companies often purchase competitors, not to acquire their ideas and products, but to shut them down. A recent report raised questions about whether such an acquisition may be partially responsible for a shortage of ventilators in the United States.

A study by Yale SOM’s Song Ma shows that companies tend to invest in startups when they are struggling, in order to gain access to innovation and shore up an area of weakness.

Do activist shareholders choose quick profits over long-term health? Yale SOM’s Song Ma and his collaborators find evidence that their interventions boost innovation.

A study co-authored by Yale SOM researchers Florian Ederer and Song Ma suggests that “killer acquisitions” by pharmaceutical companies are potentially limiting the number of new treatments available.