I would imagine Knight bought the shares at the bottom here rather than CBCL giving them shares. The Knight Equity late day SEC filing from this past Friday indicates they own 98,569,997 shares (16.5% of CBCL).
Immediately after the split, there will be approximately 1.8 mil shares of CBCL available for trading. Suppose I want 2 mil shares after the split? Where do I get those? lol. With Knight holding 16.5 of 1.8 mil Post Split, that lowers in itself the float to about 1.5 mil. I would suspect the float could be much lower with heavier holders in addition to Knight. So what does this mean? This move has been well orchastrated IMO. A much higher PPS IMO and also IMO this will creat a stampede for shares prior to the split to participate in a rising PPS to who knows where with only a small amount in the float.
Combine the Knight Equity stronghold and upcoming acquisition news along with CBRL's AirWire subsidiary, this may become very interesting Spring coming for CBCL shareholders.
All IMO.