Yes, anyone can ask the company. I believe it would be quite tedious and arduous for the company to determine when each shareholder (of record) bought how many shares at a specific price and time for each share they own. More than likely, they will just issue them to shareholders of record of a specific date or older. The value of the dividend will most likely be determined by the number of shares held, regardless of when they were purchased or what price was paid for the shares as long as the shares were bought by the specified date or prior. You can look at what GNS is doing to get an idea of what might happen.