Using financial institution mergers as exogenous shocks to common ownership, we find that stock prices of commonly held firms incorporate future earnings news more quickly and are less sensitive to noise traders. Our analyses show that the increase in price informativeness is due to: (1)...

I model the choice between a negotiated block trade and a public tender offer as means of acquiring control in a firm with a large minority blockholder. Potential acquirers differ in their (privately known) value-creation ability. In equilibrium, block trades are made by lower ability acquirers...