In a bankruptcy all claims by creditors must be satisfied prior to any reimbursement to shareholders. Given that companies generally go bankrupt because their

In a bankruptcy all claims by creditors must be satisfied prior to any reimbursement to shareholders. Given that companies generally go bankrupt because their liabilities to creditors exceed their assets, this almost always means that all shares in the company are reduced to a value of nothing, the rare exception being when a company's assets exceed its liabilities, but goes bankrupt because it is unable to liquidate its assets fast enough to pay its creditors on time. But even in that case it's likely that shareholders get fractions of pennies on the dollar.