Dog And Pony Show

  

In ye olden days (okay, not that old, but still), dog and pony shows literally had dogs and ponies, probably doing tricks and having petting zoo moments. The name stuck, but the dogs and ponies changed to financial securities, up for sale no doubt.

Dog and pony shows can have a wider meaning, referring in general to road shows that showcase products and have presentations...like a big "hey, you need to buy this!" conference. In the financial sector, a dog and pony show refers mostly to companies ripe with an IPO, a.k.a. an initial public offering.

If you don’t know what an IPO is, it’s okay, we’ve all been there at one point or another. The TL;DR of an IPO is that it’s when a private company is offering shares (investment opportunity instruments) to the public for the first time. This gives the company more money they need to grow (and some flashy PR with executives strutting their stuff), and gives investors a chance to get in early on an up-and-coming company. A dog and pony show can make or break a company’s success in getting investors on board long after it’s over.

Road shows (in the finance sector) are also a great way for financial people to mingle, mingle, mingle. Think: brokers, investors, analysts, and even fund managers.

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finance a la shmoop what is a rights offering all right people think a right

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to buy and buy at a discount kind of companies may be fearful of a hostile [Woman pointing at woman behind reception desk]

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takeover or some other big bad event that harms them and they want to give

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existing shareholders preferential treatment over external non shareholders [Shareholders at a night club]

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this rights offering is essentially a hostile takeover defense so they might [Bear attacking rights offering]

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say ok pals for the next 60 days you have the right to buy an additional

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share of our stock which is currently trading for 312 dollars each for $200 a [Man discussing company stock at presentation]

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share and note the discount wink wink and you need to currently own 5 shares

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for every one that you'll then buy sound like a plan well that is the company is [Man throws rights offering to woman]

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offering those rights to buy at a discount and the shareholders can sell

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those rights to other non shareholders for cash in essence is kind of a funky

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one-time dividend that actually hurts both the would be external hostile [Metal anvil land on a bear]

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takeover people but unfortunately also hurts the employees who have stock

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options not actual shares so then they suffer the dilution of this rights [Anvil lands on employees]

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offering with nothing to show for it yeah and you may ask is there such a

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thing as a hostile take under mmm wondering about that [People protesting outside metal fence]

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