What Is Delisting? When a Stock Leaves the Exchange
Delisting is when a company's shares are removed from a stock exchange, so they can no longer be traded there. It's the opposite of an IPO.
Voluntary delisting
A company (or its promoters) may choose to delist — often to take the company private — by buying back public shares, usually through a reverse book-building process at a negotiated price. Shareholders are given the chance to tender their shares before the stock goes.
Compulsory delisting
The exchange can force a delisting if a company breaks listing rules — persistent non-compliance, prolonged suspension, or financial distress. This is a penalty, and holders of a compulsorily delisted stock can be left with shares that are very hard to sell.
What it means for your data
A delisted ticker stops getting new price and results data. In the market data, a delisted company is marked inactive and drops out of the live universe, though historical records may remain. A separate situation is a ticker rename, where the company stays listed under a new symbol.