According to Domino's Pizza's 10-K:
On April 17, 2007, our board of directors declared a $13.50 per share special cash dividend on its outstanding common stock totaling $846.4 million, which was paid on May 4, 2007 to stockholders of record at the close of business on April 27, 2007.
According to Yahoo, the price history of DPZ around this time looked like this:
|------------+-------+-----------------------|
| date | close | |
|------------+-------+-----------------------|
| 2007-04-16 | 33.66 | |
| 2007-04-17 | 33.51 | <-- dividend declared |
| 2007-04-18 | 33.63 | |
| 2007-04-19 | 32.62 | |
| 2007-04-20 | 33.26 | |
| 2007-04-23 | 33.21 | |
| 2007-04-24 | 32.7 | |
| 2007-04-25 | 32.81 | <-- ex-div date? |
| 2007-04-26 | 33.06 | |
| 2007-04-27 | 32.92 | <-- record date |
| 2007-04-30 | 32.25 | |
| 2007-05-01 | 32.6 | |
| 2007-05-02 | 32.07 | |
| 2007-05-03 | 31.99 | |
| 2007-05-04 | 32.37 | <-- paid |
| 2007-05-07 | 19.63 | <-- priced dropped |
| 2007-05-08 | 19.86 | |
|------------+-------+-----------------------|
According to this stackexchange answer, you must own the stock on the record date to get the dividend. But as a practical matter, since it takes time for transactions to settle, you must purchase the stock prior to the ex-div date to actually get the dividend. Furthermore, the SEC says the ex-div date is usually 2 days prior to the record date. Therefore, it looks like the ex-div date should be on or around 2007-04-25.
Given these facts, why didn't the stock price of DPZ drop by about $13.50 (the amount of the special dividend) on the ex-div date (or at least prior to the record date)?
Did those who purchased DPZ between 2007-04-25 and 2007-05-04 foolishly lose out on receiving the special dividend? (and, conversely, did everyone who sold DPZ receive both the special dividend and over $30 per share?)