The Texas Shoot-Out under Knightian Uncertainty

The allocation of a co-owned company to a single owner using the Texas Shoot-Out mechanism with private valuations is investigated. We identify Knightian Uncertainty about the peer’s distribution as the reason for its deterrent effect of an immature dissolving. Modeling uncertainty by a compact environment around a reference distribution *F* in the Prohorov metric, we derive the optimal price announcement for an ambiguity averse divider. The divider hedges against uncertainty for valuations close to the median of *F*, while extracting expected surplus for high and low valuations. The outcome of the mechanism is efficient for valuations around the median. A risk neutral co-owner prefers to be the chooser, even strictly so for any valuation under low levels of uncertainty and for extreme valuations under high levels of uncertainty.