In the past 30 years, major changes have occurred not only in the kinds of securities issued, but also in the "way" securities are issued and in the national markets "where" they are issued. Traditional registered offerings have been partly displaced by shelf registered offerings and Rule 144A...

This paper presents the results of an in-depth investigation of 61 publicly-traded firms that chose to liquidate voluntarily over the period 1970 through 1991. In comparison with a size-matched sample of industry peers, firms that elect to liquidate voluntarily are characterized by lower Tobin's...