Abstract: Digital mergers and acquisitions are an important way for enterprises to carry out digital transformation, but the rapid development of digital technology has increased the difficulty of valuing digital target enterprises. Taking the non-financial listed companies on the A-share market from 2013 to 2023 as samples, this study investigates the impact of digital M&As on digital M&A premiums and the reasons behind it. The findings show that compared to non digital M&A, digital M&As have higher premiums. The mechanism analysis shows that the reason for the high premium of digital M&As is that digital M&As increase the premium of unconfirmed net assets and the premium of confirmed net assets. The heterogeneity analysis shows that when the acquiring company belongs to a non digital industry and its executives do not have an information technology background, the premium for digital M&As is higher. The economic consequences test shows that despite the high premium of digital M&As, the acquiring company can still improve its M&A performance. To this end, the government should provide policy support for digital M&As, while strengthening the regulation of digital M&As.

Key words: digital transformation, digital M&A, M&A premium, unrecognized net asset premium, recognized net asset premium