Elon Musk tweeted 'use Signal', confused investors sent wrong stock soaring over 5,100%

Woops.

Jason Fan | January 12, 2021, 03:51 PM

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk has sent the share prices of a little-known medical device company soaring more than 5,100 per cent, after confused investors ploughed money into the wrong company.

Musk, who tweeted a two-word recommendation on Jan. 7, was referring to the encrypted messaging service Signal, according to Bloomberg.

Investors, however, began buying shares of Texas-based company Signal Advance instead, causing the Texas-based company's shares to surge more than sixfold by the end of Jan. 7.

Three trading days later, the company has surged more than 5,100 per cent, giving it a market valuation of US$390 million (S$518.6 million).

According to CNBC, Signal Advance had no revenue from 2015 to 2016, and the company's CEO is the sole full-time employee.

Not the first time

CNBC also reported that a similar situation occurred in 2019, when some people bought shares of Zoom Technologies, thinking it was the popular video-calling service Zoom Video Communications.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission then stopped trading of Zoom Technologies, partly due to the confusion over its connection with Zoom video.

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Top image via Tesla/YouTube.