Abstract
In this paper, the pricing and sale of firms is approached from the owners' point of view. It is shown that there are very strong ex ante owner incentives to set prices of firm products or services below their short- term profit maximizing levels, since low prices signal low costs and as a consequence a higher sales value of the firm. Buyers take this signaling into consideration, but irrespective of their countermoves, the equilib- rium result may be a lowering of ex ante product prices, and an ex post market overvaluation of the firm. This model is utilized to suggest possible explanations to one of the more puzzling initial public offer (IPO) phenomena: the long run underperformance of IPO equities.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Technology and Investment |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Pages (from-to) | 205-210 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| ISSN | 2150-4059 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2010 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Social Sciences
- signaling
- IPO overpricing