This research explores the motivation of equity carve-outs in Taiwan. We find that carve-out parents are significantly overvalued and the subsidiaries are significantly undervalued. In addition, parents and subsidiaries earned positive abnormal announcement-period returns, and outperformed appropriate benchmarks over a threeyear period following the carve-outs. The abnormal operating performance of subsidiaries improved after carve-outs, and parent operating performance outperformed matching firms. These results are consistent with the divestiture gains hypothesis. Furthermore, cross-sectional regression shows that there exists a positive relationship between abnormal operating performance and long-run abnormal return, providing further support for the divesture gains hypothesis.