SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Technology Stocks : Safeguard Scientifics SFE

 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: michael r potter who wrote (1482)7/6/1998 11:02:00 PM
From: David Lawrence  Read Replies (1) of 4467
 
>>That means that the market is assigning roughly a 50/50 chance of it happening.

There are a lot of arbitrage forces at work, and I won't proclaim to understand all of them even after experiencing both sides of an acquisition on numerous occasions. As a matter of fact, market prices tend to go in the opposite direction that I typically expect. Suffice it to say that a great deal of the spread can be attributed to hedge positions, where shareholders of one company have shorted the other, or existing shorts have taken a long hedge position. There are also private hedge positions that are not listed as CBOE open interest or exchange short positions.

While certainly some of the spread is attributable to the possibility of the deal not going through, that's pretty unlikely in this case (no major regulatory hurdles), so the discount would be relatively minor. Just a guess here, but I'd say both issues will begin to drop as the merger date approaches and the various arbitrage and hedge positions unwind. BTW, is the exchange ratio fixed, or it based on a pre-closing trading range?
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext