Helios and Matheson Analytics was a publicly traded data analytics company based in New York City, New York. The company became widely known during its final years for acquiring and subsequently operating MoviePass, which ultimately led to the company's bankruptcy. History The company was founded in 1983 by Shmuel BenTov as Software Ben-Tov. It changed its name later that year to The A Consulting Team. The company made its initial public offering in 1997. In 2006, Helios & Matheson Information Technology Ltd., an IT consulting firm based in India, purchased a majority stake in the company. The A Consulting Team changed its name in 2007 to Helios & Matheson North America, to highlight its association with the parent company. The company again changed its name in 2011 to Helios & Matheson Information Technology Inc., to reflect that it was seeking business opportunities worldwide, and then in 2013 to Helios and Matheson Analytics, to reflect that the business had "moved beyond IT". The company acquired Zone Technologies, maker of the RedZone Map app, in November 2016. Zone founder Ted Farnsworth was appointed chairman of Helios, and then, in January 2017, became Helios's CEO. In August 2017, Helios purchased a majority stake in MoviePass. Helios advanced MoviePass $55 million from December to February 20, 2018. MoviePass then converted the advances from debt to equity. This increased Helios' ownership stake from 62.4 percent to 81.2 percent. Another $35 million in advances converted to capital put Helios at 91.8 percent, allowing for a merger unilaterally initiated by the Helios board. In January 2018, co-founder Stacy Spikes was fired from the company. In April 2018, Helios acquired the movie listings website Moviefone from Verizon's digital media subsidiary, Oath Inc. As part of the transaction, Verizon took an equity stake in MoviePass. In March 2018, the board of directors began the process to spin off Zone Technologies to shareholders as a separate, publicly traded company, with the hope that it would allow Helios to focus on its strengths. In April 2018, Helios sold $150 million in stock with $30 million of the shares at $2.75, a discount from the closing market price of $3.83. Most of the proceeds were used to fund MoviePass. With the diluting and discount on the shares, prior investors indicated their unhappiness with the company on Twitter. In May 2018, the company acquired the assets of Emmett Furla Oasis Films, gaining its