How One Tweet Cost Twitter $8billion in Market Cap

Twitter has been under pressure for the last couple days as a disappointing earning release caused the stock to take a dive. The dive started earlier than normal for a bad earnings report. Companies usually wait til after the close for release and full dissemination. A Tweet that went out Tuesday while the market was still open and caused the stock to plummet.

The BBC wrote:

What actually happened?

Twitter was due to announce its earnings for the first quarter of the year after close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where the company is listed.

Announcing results after the markets close gives investors a chance to digest the news, sleep on it, and then start trading again the next day.

Except it turns out that somebody thought it would be a good idea to release this information early, on the technology-led Nasdaq-run investor relations page for Twitter.

Initially it seemed no-one really noticed the error, until a well-placed tweet highlighted the mistake and revealed Twitter’s disappointing results.

The markets were still trading, and Twitter had not had the chance to formally present its results in a statement that would have bathed them in a more flattering light.

So who is to blame?

Well, it seems that Nasdaq slipped up here after Twitter furnished the exchange with earnings details ahead of time ready for official publication.

It is like someone breaking an embargo on a news story.

The key factor in Tuesday evening’s fiasco was that Selerity’s automatic computer programs, called bots, which scan the web for juicy financial details, were able to find the mistake so quickly.

Read the full story on BBC.com

The stock on Tuesday opened at $52.16, and traded as low as $38.38 before closing at $42.27, the stock opened Wednesday and traded as low as $38.07. Today the stock is up 2% at $39.35.