SEC Said Looking Into Fake Web Report That Sent Twitter Up 8%
2015-07-14 17:54:01.283 GMT
By Matt Robinson and Jordan Robertson
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
is looking into possible market manipulation over a fake news
article that led to a brief spike in Twitter Inc. shares, said a
person familiar with the matter.
Twitter rose more than 8 percent in the late morning after
the appearance of the article, which claimed the company had
received a takeover offer, before losing most of those gains
within 20 minutes.
The report, which imitated the form of a Bloomberg News
article, appeared on a site called bloomberg.market.
“The story was fake and appeared on a bogus website that
was not affiliated with Bloomberg,” said Ty Trippet, a
Bloomberg spokesman.
A spokesman for Twitter said that the story was fake. John
Nester, a spokesman for the SEC, declined to comment.
The Bloomberg.market website was registered on July 10 to a
post-office box in Panama belonging to WhoisGuard Inc.,
according to records from WHOis.net. Attempts to reach
WhoisGuard, a company that sells anonymization services for
website owners, weren’t successful.
For Related News and Information:
Today’s Top Stories: TOP <GO>
To contact the reporters on this story:
Matt Robinson in New York at +1-212-617-5409 or
mrobinson55@bloomberg.net;
Jordan Robertson in Washington at +1-202-654-4361 or
jrobertson40@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jeffrey D Grocott at +1-212-617-1972 or
jgrocott2@bloomberg.net
Gregory Mott
2015-07-14 17:54:01.283 GMT
By Matt Robinson and Jordan Robertson
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
is looking into possible market manipulation over a fake news
article that led to a brief spike in Twitter Inc. shares, said a
person familiar with the matter.
Twitter rose more than 8 percent in the late morning after
the appearance of the article, which claimed the company had
received a takeover offer, before losing most of those gains
within 20 minutes.
The report, which imitated the form of a Bloomberg News
article, appeared on a site called bloomberg.market.
“The story was fake and appeared on a bogus website that
was not affiliated with Bloomberg,” said Ty Trippet, a
Bloomberg spokesman.
A spokesman for Twitter said that the story was fake. John
Nester, a spokesman for the SEC, declined to comment.
The Bloomberg.market website was registered on July 10 to a
post-office box in Panama belonging to WhoisGuard Inc.,
according to records from WHOis.net. Attempts to reach
WhoisGuard, a company that sells anonymization services for
website owners, weren’t successful.
For Related News and Information:
Today’s Top Stories: TOP <GO>
To contact the reporters on this story:
Matt Robinson in New York at +1-212-617-5409 or
mrobinson55@bloomberg.net;
Jordan Robertson in Washington at +1-202-654-4361 or
jrobertson40@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jeffrey D Grocott at +1-212-617-1972 or
jgrocott2@bloomberg.net
Gregory Mott