Now the smart money would buy enough stock to acquire total control. In a word, Asset stripping. Well established companies such as IBM have acquired huge real estate holdings over the years, which are fully amortised and off the books. You close down trading operations, sell off the real estate, write off your worthless stock, and laugh all the way to the bank. So a few hundred thousand ex-employees join the soup kitchen lines.
Life is hard and cruel.
They should have planned better. And that even when the US is one of the only countries with an active plan for assisting Small Business with Y2k. If you have done your homework and have enough petty cash, you could pick up some amazing bargains in the Millennial Junk Sale. If you are really smart you might buy out your competition and get a healthy monopoly going. The systems integrator who can roll in total replacement systems quickly will also probably make a killing in the marketplace.