Tesla CEO Elon Musk is standing on the construction site of the Tesla Gigafactory. In Grünheide near Berlin, 3 September 2020.
Patrick Pleul | photo alliance Getty Images
When Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged his Twitter followers on Thursday to “use Signal,” it meant the encrypted messaging app. Apparently some people are taken in the wrong way.
Shares of an obscure and unrelated company called Signal Advance, which trades over the counter, rose 527% on Thursday and another 91% on Friday, rising from 60 cents to $ 7.19.
The Token referred to as Musk is run by a non-profit person and is an alternative to texting apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Apple’s messaging service. That took Signal to Twitter on Friday to clarify that it has nothing to do with Signal Advance.
“It is understandable that people want to invest in growth beyond Signal, but this is not us,” Signal wrote. “We are an independent 501c3 and have the same investment in your privacy.”
It’s a familiar Wall Street affair.
In April 2019, on the day Zoom Video Communications held its first highly anticipated market outlook under the ZM ticker symbol, a Chinese company called Zoom Technologies jumped more than 80% in two hours on the contrary. The stock delivered most of those gains on that day, closing up 10%.
Six years earlier, as investors waited for Twitter’s IPO, shares of Tweeter Home Entertainment Group rose more than 1,000%.
Signal Advance was founded in Texas under the name Biodyne in 1992 and provided services to medical and legal staff. The company shifted the focus to the use of technology in healthcare and changed its name to Signal Advance. The thin trading stock hit the market in 2014.
Signal Advance is so small that it does not account for finances with the SEC. As of March 2019, it had no full-time employees except CEO Chris Hymel, who did not respond to a request for comment immediately.
Due to the interest of unsuspecting investors, the company now has a market potential of $ 660 million, up from $ 55 million two days ago. By Thursday, the stock had traded below $ 1 since 2015.
The Signal messaging app, backed by the Signal Technology Foundation, is “running entirely on donations,” according to a New Yorker article published in October.
The group had further concerns after Musk tweeted to his more than 41 million followers. Signal said Thursday that there were technical issues with confirmations because “so many newcomers are trying to join.”
Both the technical snafu and wild trading of unrelated stocks underscore the growing influence of Musk. On Thursday, it became the richest person in the world thanks to Tesla ‘s nearly 800% increase in market cap over the past year. On Friday, Tesla became the fifth most valuable public company in the U.S., surpassing Facebook.
COMMENT: Former Ford CEO Mark Fields on what Tesla needs to focus on in 2021