What's in a name.com?: The effects of ‘.com’ name changes on stock prices and trading activity

Abstract

This paper uses a market signaling perspective to examine investor reactions to firm announcements of name changes to include ‘.com.’ Firms that change their name as a purely cosmetic technique are contrasted to those that employ other strategic investments. Results show that announcements of ‘.com’ name changes are associated with significant increases in stock prices and trading activity. Furthermore, the magnitude of investor reactions is significantly larger when name changes are accompanied by other strategies. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.