Excitement over Twitter’s new stock offering prompted investors to jump the gun this week to buy into a company with no association to the social media site. Tweeter, a bankrupt electronics company, saw an active day of trading on Friday. The mix-up left Tweeter’s nearly worthless stock, which closed the night before at the price of less than a penny, to be bought for a high of 15 cents with over 14.3 million shares traded by midday.
Many look at this mix-up and wonder how investors could have been so careless to invest in a completely unrelated company, but Twitter had proposed to investors, last Thursday, that their stock symbol would be “TWTR”. This closely resembled Tweeter’s stock symbol, “TWTRQ”. By noon on Friday shares were halted under the terms of Rule 6440, which FINRA uses in “circumstances in which it is necessary to protect investors and the public interest.”
Twitter’s initial public offering in early September has, evidently, left investors eager to invest. The company will likely go public around Thanksgiving and is expecting to raise about $1 billion in its IPO.
References:
“The Globe and Mail.” The Globe and Mail. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2013. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/tweeter-home-shares-explode-on-apparent-twitter-mix-up/article14700115/>.
“The Globe and Mail.” The Globe and Mail. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2013. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/twitter-takes-first-step-in-bid-to-go-public/article14301505/>.
PISANI, JOSEPH. “Twitter Mix-up.” Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 04 Oct. 2013. Web. 06 Oct. 2013. <http://news.yahoo.com/twitter-tweeter-investor-mix-185116289.html>.
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