Twitter Overload? Traders Buy Up Dormant Tweeter

Shares of Tweeter Home Entertainment surged Friday, as investors apparently mistook the former retailer as a golden opportunity to get ahead of Twitter’s initial public offering.

The social media website made its highly-anticipated IPO filing public on Thursday. Twitter intends to raise up to $1 billion but didn’t disclose which exchange it will be listed on.

Tweeter, on the other hand, declared bankruptcy in November 2008 and subsequently closed its stores.

But the company is now sharing in the Twitter excitement. Investors bought up the consumer electronics retailer, sending shares to a one-year high of 15 cents.

Tweeter, which trades on the over-the-counter market, was up 684% at 5 cents a share before trading was halted Friday afternoon due to an “extraordinary event.”

In a statement, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority FINRA said it imposed a halt because it believed that trading in Tweeter “demonstrated a widespread misunderstanding related to the possible initial public offering of an unrelated security.”

Friday quickly became the most active trading day for Tweeter since May 2007, when the company reported quarterly earnings and indicated it could file for Chapter 11 protection. The stock’s volume hit 14 million shares before the halt.

Tweeter’s ticker symbol, TWTRQ, is just one letter off from Twitter’s, TWTR.

FOX Business reporter Adam Samson contributed to this report.