"Businesses are run better once they are out in the sunshine by themselves, " says Joseph Cornell of Spin-Off Advisors.

FORBES: Spinoffs

That's a great trade for the parent, says Joseph Cornell, who publishes Spin-Off Research from Chicago: Sell high, buy low.

FORBES: A Different Spin

They combine a demiurgic, Caligari-like mastery over their creations with the gentle dream archeology of Joseph Cornell: their puppets look less like things invented than like things discovered.

NEWYORKER: Tales of the Brothers Quay

"Hedge funds take an activist approach, poking management with sticks, " said Joseph W. Cornell of Spinoff Advisors of Chicago.

FORBES: Magazine Article

But Joseph Kaye, a graduate student at Cornell's computer science department, had a slightly less rational idea: stop with just two endpoints.

FORBES: Magazine Article