A stock that own is getting bought out???

[ouzacprice]

I picked up some shares of jlg industries (jlg) last week and today it got announced that they were getting bought out by oshkosh trucks or something in december for $28 a share which is about a 35% premium to the price that I paid for the stock. My question is- what do I need to do if anything during this transition? and do I just get cash when the deal physically goes through in December?
Would it be better to sell my shares now and avoid any possible volatility between now and then?
Any other general info. about what happens when you own a stock that gets bought out would be appreciated as well.
Thanks very much for any help,
zp

[BradleyT]

My mom had one of the cell phone companies that got bought out and she had the shares in Ameritrade and they simply gave her the cash on the day of the buyout.

[Scorpion Man]

[ QUOTE ]
I picked up some shares of jlg industries (jlg) last week and today it got announced that they were getting bought out by oshkosh trucks or something in december for $28 a share which is about a 35% premium to the price that I paid for the stock. My question is- what do I need to do if anything during this transition? and do I just get cash when the deal physically goes through in December?
Would it be better to sell my shares now and avoid any possible volatility between now and then?
Any other general info. about what happens when you own a stock that gets bought out would be appreciated as well.
Thanks very much for any help,
zp

[/ QUOTE ]

Just sell it and move on (although you do not have to do anything to get the cash if you stick around -- you will be sent a proxy statement to vote for the transaction but it is irrelevant whether you return it or not). By holding the stock you are now in the risk/arb business -- the business of betting on the probability of takeovers actually closing and the possiblity of higher bids.

The main problem is that closing transactions takes many months and you do not get paid until then. As you can see, the "spread" is already very tight vs. the $28 takeout price.

Only reason to hold the stock would be if you had a ton of cash around and no other opportunities for it or if you had reason to believe there was a higher bid emerging.

[ouzacprice]

thanks for all the advice- sold it after doing some research and I think that was definitely the best decision. NOw just looking for another opportunity to put my money in!
thanks again