A stock split does not change the value of the long or the short positions in a stock.

If I own 100 shares of company XYZ that is currently trading at $50 (worth $5k) and it splits two for one, I then own 200 shares worth $25 and it is still worth $5k. All that happens is that the float doubles and share price halves.

So if there are 70 million GameStop shares short at $300 then after a 2:1 split, there are 140 million shares short at $150. The dollar amount of shorted stock does not change nor does it remedy the GameStop situation.

The other answers are right. Splitting has no effect on company value... but it kind of does.

And the short-squeeze situation you are talking about would probably get WORSE if they did a split - it would be funny if it happened.

Stocks are generally split because the company wants to make it more affordable to buy a share of its stock. Imagine if you had PEPSI with just 40 stocks available and its worth was 40 Billion... Each stock is worth 1 billion. (I know I am being extreme)

Well this limits the number of people that can buy PEPSI because not everyone has an extra billion.

Even if a stock is trading at $1500 USD this would limit people in buying it. There are services that allow you to buy % of shares but these come with fees and the buying and selling are not done EXACTLY when you want.

So basically in this case if they split the stock, they might increase the amount of people that could buy this by a few %. Not a tremendous amount of people percentage-wise but when you take a small percent and multiply by millions then multiply by the demand... this would be at the very best a push for the those trying to short it and most likely would get more people in on the "screw-the-man" scheme.

It is very likely that Gamestop is trying to split their stock. I would for sure. But this requires filing paperwork with the exchange and the exchange OKing it. Note that most exchanges are stooges for Big Bank. Big Bank pays their bills. I doubt amidst all of this (NYSE knowing Big Bank is pissed at the price fixing) that double down on pissing them off is not what they want. NYSE would probably counter a split request with a statement saying - "if Gamestop trades above $150 for the next 60 days there will be a split"... that's how these things are handled IRL.

Stock splits have two basic effects on market:

1. Stock will go up way higher than market average when announced.
2. Stock will go up way higher than market average when implemented.

-funny the price fixing insults as Big Banks use direct exchange feeds and algorithmic software to price fix to their advantage daily.

You're asking the wrong question. The right question is, does Gamestop want to end the short squeeze.

If Gamestop wanted to stop the short squeeze, they could do so simply by issuing more shares. That's the one lever they have on this.

However, they don't want to, for two reasons.

First: this gets them in the news, and raises their (originally, very low) stock price, which makes them look good. It also theoretically could allow them to do a stock issue, not to break the squeeze, but to raise capital. All of this is largely a good thing for Gamestop.

Second: Gamestop is a company, and as a company it consists of the people who own Gamestop stock. The people executing the short squeeze clearly do not want to break it! It's unclear what percentage of Gamestop is actually owned by the retail investors, I doubt they own a majority or anything like that, but they may well hold a majority of the shares held by people interested in the matter. (Institutions like the big pension funds, the ETFs, etc., who may well own a majority of the actual stock, don't really care - they're undoubtedly happy to own a now-appreciated-in-value stock, but they'll most likely just keep holding because it doesn't really matter in the long run. And the major C-suite players and other major long-term stockholders undoubtedly are profiting nicely off of this, and again don't really mind the squeeze happening.)

The only people who want the squeeze to stop are the people who do not own GME, because they're short in it, and thus don't get a say!

Someone holding a short is betting that your company will fail, and tries to benefit. A short squeeze hurts the people who are betting against the future of your company. Most companies would do gladly anything to hurt shorts. There is no way GameStop would do anything to reduce the trouble of these shorts.

Imagine I bet £1,000 that you lose your job next week, another £1,000 that you lose your home, and another £1,000 that your spouse will file for divorce. Would you do anything to help me? Absolutely no.