Elsevier has many card PLoS does not have such as sheer size or an activity in developing countries (textbooks for free, etc.). Lots of leverage points to use. At 7M articles in the archives and at 250k published a year they probably think of themselves as "too big to fall".Â

I see two scenarios: Elsevier becomes nationalized/turned into non-profit (given the number of structural problems in almost any area of human activity [lots of things that simply can't go on], huge social tense and upcoming military conflicts, things can turn quite dramatically) or nothing major happens (I tend to consider this slightly more probable) and after dust settles down Elsevier becomes a major OA publisher at $3k per article "free to read" and subscription model for text-mining access.Â

I don't think stock market has any role in the process. Gambling on the stock market is no different than betting on a horse (there are legal differences, but these are not that important in these days). So-called "investors" are expendable (check MF Global story if you have any doubts ;) ).Â