What happened
Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY) stock dropped again on Tuesday, down 18% as of 1 p.m. EDT, as investors continue to react (with disdain) to news that the owner of the MoviePass subscription service is planning a reverse split of its stock, cutting the number of shares they own by as much as 99.8%.
But that's not even the real story today.
Even with buyout rumors swirling, MoviePass investors can hardly bear to look at their stock, much less buy it. Image source: Getty Images.
So what
The fact that investors don't like the idea of a reverse share split is not surprising. The last time Helios and Matheson pulled this kind of stunt, the stock completed a round-trip from the pre-split share price to the post-split price and back to the pre-split price in eight days flat -- losing Helios shareholders 99.6% of their investment in less than two weeks.
What is surprising is that not long after Helios announced its plan to reverse-split, Bloomberg revived rumors that venture capitalist Triton Funds LLC might be interested in a potential takeover of Helios in an article titled "MoviePass looks affordable." Yet the stock didn't rise at all on the buyout speculation -- worse, shares declined.
Now what
If even news of a potential buyout isn't enough to whet investors' appetite for Helios and Matheson, it's hard to imagine what will.
