Final answer:
In a rights offering, stockholders can either do nothing and let the rights expire, subscribe to the full number of entitled shares, or order all the rights to be sold. Keeping the rights indefinitely is not an option as rights have an expiration date.
Step-by-step explanation:
In a rights offering, an existing stockholder is provided with the option to buy additional shares in the company at a discount to the public market price. When they receive one right for each share they own, they typically have several options:
- Do nothing and let the rights expire, which is essentially a decision not to participate in the rights offering.
- Subscribe to the full number of entitled shares, meaning they exercise their rights to buy additional shares at the discounted price.
- Order all the rights to be sold, where they sell the rights on the open market to another investor who may want to subscribe to the shares.
It is not possible to keep the rights indefinitely, as rights have an expiration date by which they need to be exercised or sold.