It’s been a great month to be Zoom.
Yes, Zoom Video Communications has thrived in the age of coronavirus-induced quarantine as it and other remote conferencing services have suddenly become indispensable to the modern economy. Zoom’s shares, which trade as ZM on NASDAQ, have more than doubled since Jan. 1.
But it’s also been great for Zoom Technologies, a Chinese holding company with stakes in video game developers. Due almost entirely to investor confusion, Zoom Technologies—which trades as an over-the-counter stock with the ticker symbol ZOOM—has also soared, with its share price zooming (sorry) from $1.10 to an intraday high of $60 last week, before closing at $20.90. (It has returned to earth a bit in the last week, and is now trading around $10)
While the mix-up has been fun for Zoom Technologies investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission was not as amused, and suspended trading of its shares yesterday (pdf) until April 8, when presumably investors will know the difference.