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Two Zooms soared after IPO: Did you buy the wrong one?

Published:Sunday | April 21, 2019 | 12:13 AM
Nasdaq was ready for the Zoom IPO, Thursday, April 18, 2019, in New York.
Nasdaq was ready for the Zoom IPO, Thursday, April 18, 2019, in New York.

One initial public offering of shares, two stocks zooming higher.

Investors on Thursday pounced on their first chance to buy shares of Zoom Video Communications, the video-conferencing company that had its initial public offering of stock. Its shares surged 72.2 per cent from their IPO price of US$36.

But others may have mistakenly bought Zoom Technologies, a company whose stock was trading for less than a penny in February and whose shares were delisted from the Nasdaq in 2014. Its total market value is less than one-thousandth of the more famous Zoom.

Shares of Zoom Technologies – ticker symbol ‘ZOOM’ versus ‘ZM’ for the ballyhooed IPO – surged as much as 124.5 per cent in Thursday morning trading. Enthusiasm for the stock faded as the day went on – perhaps as more investors figured out the dual Zooms – and it ended the day up a more modest 10.2 per cent.

Zoom Technologies had an even bigger leap of 1,100 per cent in March when Zoom Video Communications filed its IPO. Its shares closed that day at 6 cents.

– AP