After AIG made its executives multi-zillionaires and brought the world economy to its knees, it managed to extract hundreds of billions of dollars of your money as a reward. But charts don't lie – even if AIG management does – so the stock lost virtually all its value.
I say virtually. It got down to about $1.50, which was sort of embarrassing, I suppose, for the brilliant executives still there. So they decided to do what any inept company would do – a reverse split. (Competent companies tend to make a practice of growing their firm, increasing shareholder value, and doing "normal" splits.)
Even though the stock had been languishing at about $1.50 for a while, perhaps they thought doing a 1-for-20 reverse split would create a more credible-looking stock. Here's the affect it had:
Nicely played, AIG. You remain full of win.
