Twitter-hungry investors rush to wrong Tweet shares

tweeter final
What a difference a Q makes. TWTRQ spiked as investors hoped to get ahead of Twitter's IPO.

The stock of a long-closed electronics retailer suddenly soared Friday as investors apparently mistook its worthless stock as a way to buy into Twitter's upcoming stock offering.

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group (TWTRQ), which filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and went out of business in 2008, still has shares trading under the symbol TWTRQ.

Twitter plans to list its shares under the symbol TWTR so it's understandable there might be some confusion. Q is typically added to the end of bankrupt companies that still have shares trading.

TWTRQ closed Thursday at 1 cent, right within its normal trading range.

But Friday, the day after Twitter filed papers detailing its plans for a $1 billion initial public offering, shares of TWTRQ soared as high as 15 cents, a gain of about 1400%. Shares finished the day at 5 cents, up nearly 700% for the day.

The stock had a similar brief spike in price back on Sept 17, a few days after Twitter's initial filing that signaled its plans to go public.

People who still hold shares in defunct companies like TWTRQ can trade them. But the shares trade on over-the-counter markets, also known a pink sheets, rather than on any of the major exchanges.

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