Not any sadder than all the money lost every day on the lottery. And in reality no money was actually "lost" here. It really just got transferred from lesser players to better players and the house is just shuffling the deck for a reset on taking their cut.
But if persistent with the terminology, then it's not any different than the money "lost" daily on every other ticker across every other exchange. Because, unless a given ticker doesn't trade at all that day; Money is lost in every single market in every single country on every single commodity, currency, stock, security, etc., on every single exchange on every single day the world around without exception, just on a different scale....That said, money is also gained every single day under the exact same premise.
As the house always gets their cut, For every winner there has to be multiple losers. That is why trading in the market is widely and almost officially, recognized as gambling. And as with any form of Casino, organized or not; the "house" controls the game and always takes their cut. So, although everyone has their "off" days, on average, you had better know who's table you are sitting at and what the game is; and if you join a poker table, make sure it is poker, and you had better know the house and the game, better than at least half of the others at the table, or you might as well just hand your bankroll to the house and walk away to save yourself the the time and frustration it takes to bleed out.
A reverse split was announced with plenty of advance warning here, and the close of an acquisition was to be contingent on a reverse split, most likely so that they could start selling shares with no competition as soon as the acquisition was complete. Then again, they may release news and hold off selling shares until the post split price hits 5 or 10 cents, in which case all the shares purchased at .0002 and .0003 would still be worth more than they were purchased for. Everything is speculation until the story unfolds.
