is it possible for a company to acquire such a shell company and begin trading after a reverse merger?
Yes. Shell peddlers exist for that very reason. They acquire dormant shells--sometimes through custodianship actions in local courts--and sell them. They claim they clean them up, but that isn't always true.
The SEC says it doesn't like dormant shells or shell peddlers, but recently it hasn't done much about either. It badly needs a way to stop these dormant companies from trading publicly as soon as their corporate charters are revoked in their states of domicile.
Sometimes they resume trading without the reverse merger into the fraudulent shell, by making claims without actually doing a legal reverse merger.
Best of both worlds. Bring the dead ticker back to life without the baggage that comes with the skeletons in the closet bum rushing the new company to get paid.
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