To date little is known about how long equity ownership lasts, what determines its length, and whether ownership duration is related to firm performance. Using a unique time series of equity holdings over eleven years, we find that on average the firm's largest owner stays less than three years and stays longer than owners with smaller stakes. The duration of financial institutions and foreigners is shorter than that of individuals and industrial firms. We show that ownership duration is duration dependent as the probability of closing an equity position is a function of how long the owner has held the stake. Ownership duration appears to match the duration of the firm's investment projects. We find no evidence that large owners vote by foot in the sense that bad news about earnings leads to duration ending. There is a negative relationship between ownership duration and a firm's performance in general, but the sign and strength of this relationship differs across owner types. Long duration by financial institutions and industrial corporations is negatively related to performance, whereas the opposite is true for individuals. This suggests that long term ownership may improve firm performance if the monitoring is direct as opposed to delegated
