This study focused on factors that have positively influenced the model of economic success for commercial and thrift megabanks involved in merger and acquisition activities for the period 1990 - 1997, a period characterized by an unprecedented flurry of merger and acquisition activities among megabanks in the United States. This study identified and measured key independent variables for identifiable mergers and acquisitions among megabanks and tested the extent to which, such independent variables influenced abnormal returns for underlying equities traded in capital markets. This study also tested the hypothesis that megabanks are attracting significantly higher acquisition premiums than the relatively smaller banks. The data collected and the conclusions drawn were based on the logic of a hypothetico-deductive paradigm, which essentially utilized the techniques of the standard event study methodology, and included parameters of the conventional Capital Asset Pricing Model. This...