Zombies Defy Bankruptcy Logic Amid Meme-Driven Rally

  • Chapter 11 usually wipes out shares, but Reddit doesn’t care
  • Against all odds, credit analysts are factoring in memes now

AMC Lincoln Square 13 movie theater in New York.

Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg
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It’s looking more and more like corporate-finance textbooks need a chapter on memes.

Being on the brink of bankruptcy no longer seems to matter much in the U.S. stock market. While that might sound like the beginning of a cautionary tale about the state of investing in 2021, the reality is far stranger. Redditors have bid up shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and GameStop Corp. so much that it’s saved them -- for now, at least -- from deep trouble.