Investing in Twitter, oops Tweeter

We are all anxiously waiting for Twitter to IPO, so if the opportunity is there, jump on it. Who cares if it actually is a bankrupt home entertainment group, as long as the ticker symbol is close enough and the share goes up (and it does, as much as 1800% at one moment)?

From MarketWatch (Wall Street Journal), the following pretty hilarious story:


"TWTRQ’ stock up as much as 1,800% as investors confuse Tweeter for Twitter"

Twitter may be the story of the day, but Tweeter is threatening to push the social-media company off its perch.

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Inc. (TWTRQ) stock is up 523% Friday, trading at the whopping price of 5 cents. It hit as high as 13 cents in morning trade.

Update: Finra halted the Tweeter stock at 12:42 p.m. Eastern, according to the OTC Bulletin Board.

Why did this penny stock jump so much? We don’t have a precise answer for you except to say that its ticker bears a striking resemblance to a social-media company that recently started chirping about its long-awaited initial public offering.

Twitter (TWTR), which released its IPO plans on Thursday, will trade under the ticker “TWTR” while Tweeter trades with the ticker “TWTRQ.”

Investors aren’t the only ones confused. As of 12:45 p.m. Eastern Google’s ticker page for Tweeter showed the company’s name as TWTR Inc. The page pulled news stories related to Twitter.

Tweeter was a Boston-based consumer electronics chain that went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2007; its operating company eventually liquidated in 2008. But its memory lives on through those raised in the Boston area with cherished memories of going to concerts at the Tweeter Center (now renamed the Comcast Center).

And now its immortality is cemented in what has become a high-profile ticker.