This essay will explain how the announcement of mergers and acquisitions in the Nordic market create value in the short term for the shareholders of the acquiring companies. The acquisition or merger is defined as successful when the cumulative abnormal return is positive (CAR). The sample contains 326 deals that have been announced between 2002 and 2011. By studying the methods of payment, if the deal was done domestic or cross-border, if it was done in the same sector or not as the acquiring company and if the economic cycle was affecting the choice of payment methods, we try to analyze how those factors are affecting the value creation of the deal. The method used to calculate CAR was the event study methodology. The expected return was estimated by using the market model. We found with statistical significance that 55,8 percent of the announcements created value for the owners of the acquiring companies during the two day event window. The announcement gains were greater for the acquiring company that paid the owner of the target with their own equity instead of cash. We also found that the probability for a deal to be paid in equity increased during the decline of the economic cycle.