when a company delists voluntarily shareholders will usually receive cash to buy them out or shares in the new acquiring company when it is forced to go the outcome is usually different no special offer comes you either find a buyer on the exchange or are left holding a stake in a company that s no longer listed 
holding delisted stocks generally isn t very desirable the shares don t disappear but do become much more difficult to trade once off the exchange they can trade otc these markets don t offer the same accessibility and liquidity as the major exchanges you ll be faced with higher transaction costs and wider bid ask spreads another factor to consider is that there s less regulation outside of the major exchanges requirements are more relaxed including those relating to communications leaving investors more in the dark and unaware of what is going on within the company in which they re invested 