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Can the Market Add and Subtract? Mispricing in Tech Stock Carve-Outs

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  • Owen A. Lamont
  • Richard H. Thaler

Abstract

Recent equity carve-outs in US technology stocks appear to violate a basic premise of financial theory: identical assets have identical prices. In our 1998-2000 sample, holders of a share of company A are expected to receive x shares of company B, but the price of A is less than x times the price of B. A prominent example involves 3Com and Palm. Arbitrage does not eliminate these blatant mispricing due to short sale constraints, so that B is overpriced but expensive or impossible to sell short. Evidence from options prices shows that shorting costs are extremely high, eliminating exploitable arbitrage opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • Owen A. Lamont & Richard H. Thaler, 2001. "Can the Market Add and Subtract? Mispricing in Tech Stock Carve-Outs," NBER Working Papers 8302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8302
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    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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