Obit, with all due respect, I believe that in a traditional rights offering the rights will show up in investors' accounts under a similar symbol, they will have a starting trading date and will be subject to buying and selling in the open market. The price of the rights may fluctuate with the price of the common shares on a daily basis and it is likely the price of the rights will be meaningless, like pennies (depending on how many rights are offered their price will be the result of the difference in price between common shares and the conversion price, divided by a certain percentage).
During this period, those who are not interested in exercising their rights could sell them like when selling any regular stock while those who want to be in the game might buy them.
Anyone who is interested in getting additional shares -presumably at a discount- of the NewCos will have to exercise the rights. This takes the form of calling the broker where the account is being held and inform of the execution. At which point the owner of the rights must pay the nominal price set in the contract in order to acquire the new shares. These funds go to the NewCos as "new equity capital". Traditionally, there is a brief period in which the rights could be exercised after which they expire worthless.
My feelings: in this deal -if it ever goes through- there will be large demand for shares of the NewCos and there might be a lot of manipulation of the common price during the exercise period.
NOTE: Their may be other ways in which rights offerings are presented that I am not familiar with.
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