Stats › Listings, IPOs and corporate actions › Bankruptcies and delistings
56% of US delistings are takeovers, 41% failures
Merger is the ordinary exit. Source: Doidge, Karolyi and Stulz, The US Listing Gap.
Companies leave a US stock exchange in three ways: takeover, delisting for cause, or by choice. Across 17,303 exits from 1975 to 2012, closer to six in ten were takeovers and four in ten were failures. Being bought is the ordinary ending, not going bust.
17,303Delistings, 1975 to 2012
56.3%Mergers
41.1%Delisted for cause
785Bankruptcy filings, 2025
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