Talk about a case of mixed signals.
On January 6, shares of Signal Advance SIGL,
closed at 60 cents a share, a solid addition to the Rosharon, Texas-based biotechnology company formerly known as Biodyne Development Company.
A day later, on Thursday, the company’s stock surged 527% to $ 3.76 – and then everything broke down, after apparent ticker confusion amplified a move in over-counter traded securities to the ether. The rise came after Tesla Inc. TSLA,
CEO Elon Musk advised people to “use signal” and switch to Twitter TWTR’s encrypted messaging platform Signal,
and Facebook FB,
following the Sturm und Drang on politics and social media platforms after the riots on Capitol Hill last week.
Signal, the messaging platform, is not a publicly traded company, but that didn’t stop the unrelated Signal Advance from continuing its rise, up 5,643% and market value from an everyday $ 55 million as of last Wednesday to $ 3,164 billion.
The move was so powerful that Friday’s messaging service weighed in:
The curious thing is that much has been done about Signal Advance not being a Signal in a number of news articles, but the former’s shares have declined to return to Earth, enjoying a nearly 400% rise Monday.
The Signal Advance website appeared to be down on Monday, and those who wanted to access it got the following message: “The website is temporarily unable to fulfill your request because it has exceeded its resource limit. Try again later. ”
A phone call to the company, which was founded in 1992 by Chris M. Hymel, according to FactSet, was not immediately answered.
Meanwhile, the Signal messenger app bills itself as an open-source service developed by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger around 2014, and its user base has grown during periods of political turmoil.