Investors Confuse Tweeter With Twitter; Send Bankrupt Stock Up 1800%
BOSTON (CBS) - The bankrupt Boston-based electronics retail company Tweeter made something of a short-term comeback on Friday. The long-defunct company's stock had remained idle on the market under the symbol TWTRQ at a cost of less than $0.01 per share.
But Thursday evening, social media giant Twitter announced its plans for an initial public offering of the stock, including the ticker symbol TWTR. Twitter's IPO isn't expected to take place until next month. But apparently there was some confusion among investors.
Friday morning, Tweeter's stock shot up from less than a penny to as much as $0.15, an 1800 percent increase, after confused investors started buying up the stock thinking that it was Twitter.
Trading of Tweeter's stock was halted at 12:42 p.m., with shares still up nearly 600 percent on the day.
"Trading is halted because FINRA has determined that an extraordinary event has occurred or is ongoing that has had a material effect on the market for the OTC Equity Security or the security underlying an OTC ADR or has caused or has the potential to cause major disruption to the marketplace or significant uncertainty in the settlement and clearance process," the OTC Bulletin Board stated.
Tweeter filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and liquidated in 2008.
