Foot Locker stock skyrocketed Thursday after Dick’s Sporting Goods said it had agreed to buy the shoe retailer for about $2.4 billion. Dick’s investors are less sanguine about the merger, as they question whether undertaking an ambitious turnaround project will hurt,

Short interest has risen 7.8% during the past two reporting periods, which now accounts for more than 16% of the stock's total available float. At the stock's average pace of daily trading, it would take shorts three days to buy back their bearish bets.

Dick's Sporting Goods is buying the struggling Foot Locker retail chain for about $2.4 billion. The two chains operate a a combined 22 stores in South Carolina