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Overeager Investors Seeking Snap Buy Snap Interactive Instead (cnet.com)

Stephen Shankland, writing for CNET: Investors eager to cash in on the initial public offering of Snap, makers of the popular Snapchat app, have instead been buying shares of Snap Interactive, maker of the Paltalk video chat app and FirstMet dating app. Snap Interactive stock, traded over the counter and not on major exchanges like Nasdaq, has slid below $6 per share in recent years, according to Google Finance. On Monday, after Snap detailed its IPO plans, though, its stock surged to $15 and remained between $8 and $10 per share Wednesday.

35 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Overeager = dumbass by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >> Overeager Investors Seeking X Buy Y Instead

    "Overeager" is the nicest euphemism for "complete dumbass" I've ever heard. I can't wait to use this in the office.

    1. Re:Overeager = dumbass by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't the investors who first made the mistake have potentially doubled their money though?

      There's probably a lesson there about the financial industry and possibly world as a whole there...

    2. Re:Overeager = dumbass by Alioth · · Score: 1

      Only if they can sell the shares they bought. Every sale requires a buyer, and if all the buying to get it up to $15 was really just mistakes, it's likely no one will buy them off you for that amount.

  2. Re:Retarded headline... by TWX · · Score: 1

    Headlines historically have been written with capitalized first letters for all of the words.

    You're right that it's gibberish, but that gibberish could have been corrected by writing a better sentence.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  3. Re:Retarded headline... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

    Absolute gibberish. Start capitalizing only the words that should be capitalized.

    Headline capitalization has been a special case in the English language for centuries, so what the editors did here is appropriate, but even if you were to capitalize it normally it would still be "Overeager investors seeking Snap buy Snap Interactive instead", which doesn't do much to help you understand the situation.

  4. Not for the first time by Sun · · Score: 1

    When Check Point Software Technologies (a company that produces Internet security products, such as FireWall-1) had its own IPO, some investor gladly bought Checkpoint Systems's stock (at the time, producing store exit security systems for preventing theft). Shachar

    1. Re:Not for the first time by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I wonder if anyone's done intentional stock market "typosquatting" yet. Anyone know if it's illegal? I'm, uh, asking for a friend...

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    2. Re:Not for the first time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It is perfectly legal. When you register your new company, it has to be named sufficiently different from other companies. Apparently, "Snap" and "Snap Interactive" are sufficiently different.

      So go ahead, look for high-profile companies that has not yet had an IPO, and typosquat. Keep the first word of the name the same, add a second word that seem vaguely relevant. "Interactive" certainly goes well with "Snap".

    3. Re:Not for the first time by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      It is perfectly legal. When you register your new company, it has to be named sufficiently different from other companies. Apparently, "Snap" and "Snap Interactive" are sufficiently different.

      So go ahead, look for high-profile companies that has not yet had an IPO, and typosquat. Keep the first word of the name the same, add a second word that seem vaguely relevant. "Interactive" certainly goes well with "Snap".

      Well, it has to be "sufficiently" different that you can avoid a trademark dispute. "Snap" and "Snap Interactive" likely never heard of each other (until now) and thus had really no reason to dispute the other's listing.

      Not that it matters anyways. You don't buy stock on a company's name, you buy it based on their ticker symbol, which has to be unique when combined with the exchange it uses (which is why they are prefixed like NYSE and such).

  5. Re:Retarded headline... by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

    Headlines historically have been written with capitalized first letters for all of the words.

    Except for works like is, the, and, or, of, etc., unless they are the first word of the sentence.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  6. We seen this before... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    When Nintendo brought out their first Mario game for the iPhone, investors bided up the stock price until they found it was a different company partially owned by Nintendo that did the game. Nice run up for those who were ready to sell.

    1. Re:We seen this before... by Calydor · · Score: 1

      I think you mean when Pokemon GO came out.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    2. Re:We seen this before... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      I think you mean when Pokemon GO came out.

      I stand corrected. Thank you.

  7. That's news? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Piranhas going into a feeding frenzy as soon as they smell blood. That's noteworthy now?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  8. Snap is already old and busted by Spy+Handler · · Score: 1

    All the teens and 20 somethings I know have migrated from Snapchat to Whatsapp. Snap has jumped the shark already.

    I hear Hillary Clinton likes Snapchat though, the messages you type automatically disappear! Maybe they can cater to the over 60 crowd.

  9. More to the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Obviously these people are idiots, but has anyone actually liked at Snapchat IPO fillings, fob what I've read get have a huge deficit and no real mechanism for revenue generation and they say they are a $25 B company, I think the execs are cashing out and that it will fail as Twitter has.

  10. Re:Retarded headline... by Calydor · · Score: 1

    Nope, just you.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  11. Selling opportunity? by Walter+White · · Score: 1

    Seems like a good opportunity to short sell Snap Interactive.

    Just don't short Snap by mistake. ;)

    1. Re:Selling opportunity? by magarity · · Score: 1

      In theory you can short an OTC but in practice it costs as much as just buying it and hoping.

  12. misread that as... by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    ... maker of the Paltalk video chat app and FistMe dating app

    oh my.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:misread that as... by TroII · · Score: 1

      Many moons ago I mis-dialed some vendor's 800 number, in the office, on speaker. A recording came on that started out "Thanks for calling 1-800-2-FIST-ME" and got nasty really quickly. Haven't thought about that in years, thanks for bringing that laugh back!

    2. Re: misread that as... by mmell · · Score: 1

      Sounds like misdialing IBM's server support number. If you dial with the 877 area code, you get IBM server support. If you dial with the 800 area code, you get something vastly more entertaining (if you have a credit card, it costs $4.99/minute).

  13. Is this another case of by SeaFox · · Score: 1

    'A fool and his money are soon parted"?

    1. Re:Is this another case of by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      Are you referring to Snap or Snap Interactive? It's hard to tell in this case.

  14. Remember Twitter and Tweeter? by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 2

    A foolish investor and his money are soon parted.

  15. Pokemon Go all over again... by wardrich86 · · Score: 1

    I hate these "investors" with a passion, and stories like this and the deal last year with Pokemon Go further back up my point. We've got these companies that are run by "Shareholders" and yet, as we can see here, it seems like shareholders have no fucking clue what it is they're buying... they just nab shit up that sounds related to something that's gone popular. 0 research done. I'm pretty comfortable to likening investors to cancer.

  16. Re:Being able to read is a good thing by Dishevel · · Score: 1

    Hmm.
    I wonder. What percentage of people who bought the wrong Snap stock voted Trump?
    My guess is that the number is lower than you would like.

    --
    Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  17. Re:Being able to read is a good thing by murdocj · · Score: 1

    I suspect it's pretty high... it's the same mentality... "sounds like easy money I'll just jump in... oops".

  18. Re:Being able to read is a good thing by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1, Troll

    I wonder. What percentage of people who bought the wrong Snap stock voted Trump? My guess is that the number is lower than you would like.

    Trump voters are poor and ignorant. Trump students — those who bought the books and/or went to Trump University — are poor and gullible.

  19. In other news... by lactose99 · · Score: 1

    Many investors are dumb

    --
    Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
    1. Re:In other news... by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      And that they've probably put more thought into this stock purchase than they did voting.

  20. Re:Retarded headline... by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    With "buy" using a lowercase "b", it better indicates that "Snap" and "Snap Interactive" are two different entities. Not as good as the quotation marks I just used (which I've no frigging idea if that is a grammatically-acceptable use), but better than it is now.

    Officially grammatical or not, putting the quotes around the two company names is how I'd have done it. It nicely clarifies the boundaries of the multiple-word names, making the meaning of the sentence obvious.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  21. Programmers are more autistic than gen pop by tepples · · Score: 1

    True, but software engineering employment and autism spectrum disorder are still correlated.

  22. Re:Retarded headline... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Which of those words do you see in the headline?

    Pro-tip: the answer is none.

  23. How did the fool get his money in the first place? by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

    That's the real question.

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user