Endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke has shown strong benefit in several prospective randomized trials in the anterior circulation and endovascular therapy for basilar artery occlusion has shown promising results in several single-arm studies. This has led to a broad adoption of these techniques which are now considered standard of care in many institutions despite the lack of adequate evidence to prove their benefit. Indeed, the rates of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage in these studies have consistently been around 5% which raises the question as to whether patients could actually be harmed as opposed to helped by these procedures. This is a prospective, multi-center, randomized, controlled, open, blinded-endpoint trial, with the aim to evaluate the hypothesis that mechanical embolectomy with the Solitaire device is superior to medical management alone in achieving better outcomes in subjects presenting with an acute ischemic stroke caused by occlusion of the basilar artery within 6-24 hours from symptom onset.