On Tuesday, September 4, 2018, offshore drilling giant Transocean Ltd. (RIG) announced its intent to acquire beleaguered ultra-deepwater drilling specialist Ocean Rig (ORIG) in a deal that was originally valued at $2.7 billion. The deal is valued somewhat less now due to Transocean's stock declining on the news. Such behavior is typical however, as the stock of an acquiring company will usually decline following a merger announcement while the stock of the company being acquired will increase. This is the basis of an investment strategy known as merger arbitrage. However, what