ok, what just happened today?, page-18

Just to answer your question George (unlikely or not), the procedure is that they announce a share consolidation and let's say it was 1 for 2 as you suggested than you would end up with half the shares you currently own but trading (initially) at twice the price. This can be a good thing for shares in an uptrend (although share splits can also with help leverage in an uptrend - depends on a stock and the amount of shares issued), but is more often a sign that the company put out too many shares in the first place and is trying to tighten the register.

Having lots of shares on issue (a 'loose' register) can mean that people can 'leak' relatively small parcels on a consistent basis which acts like the bots do in suppressing market price by always causing a low market order price for buys, and locking the whole order in at that price (market orders generally become limit orders at the price the initial partial share amount is received at).