Despite Reports Google Did Not Just Buy ICOA 55
alphatel writes "In an odd PRWeb snafu, a press release was issued citing sources at Google as having acquired wireless carrier ICOA for $400 million. In full-out retraction, both companies denied the deal outright. Is this a case of pre-release or simply false PR by a third party? Could such incidents be used for pump and dump schemes?" ZDNet reports that, "at midday, more than 3 billion shares (pink sheets) traded over the counter for ICOA."
Sound like the usual pink sheet scam (Score:5, Informative)
2) spread rumor as to make the price spike.
3) profit. There is no "????".
Heck some even attempted to use spam to spread pink sheet scam, attempting to sell those as good sale.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And the problem with Europeans is their faggot accents and overall lack of achievement over the years.
Obvious troll is obvious, but what the hell.
How are you enjoying those jet engines we invented (British)? Or all that electricity (Italian)? Not to mention the US Navy was created by a Scot.
Re: (Score:2)
Not so fast, my friend. There was a head to head race between Whittle (British) and von Ohain (German), with both having a somewhat working prototype in 1937. The RAF's lack of interest resulted in Germany taking the lead which in turn resulted in the first mass-produced jet engines (i.e. used by the Me 262).
Re: (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
I have traced the sale of ICOA stock since the bogus story broke:
18% sold by mutual funds
28% sold by day traders
54% sold by Kim Dotcom
Re: (Score:3)
The SEC will likely be interested in this topic as well. Maybe whoever did it can get the cell next to Martha Stewart.
Re: (Score:2)
Given that her house can be found [virtualglobetrotting.com] In the Hamptons, an area so wealthy that there's a modestly successful comedy show featuring the area [usanetwork.com] as a Doctor who caters to the wealthy, I'd say I wouldn't mind at all "occupying" the cell next to Martha Stewart...
Now, if only I had a few tens of thousand of dollars in ICOA stock...
Re: (Score:2)
The SEC will likely be interested in this topic as well. Maybe whoever did it can get the cell next to Martha Stewart.
She was only jailed for five months in 2004.
Looks like... (Score:2)
It looks like someone MAY HAVE pissed off a former employee of ICOA. That is, if said person could think long-term.
Little new here. (Score:2)
Now we are seeing the advent of high tech pump and dump.
I agree with pretty much everything you said except for having a minor issue with this point.
High tech pump-and-dump has been with us for a while. It was a major component of the "dotcom bubble" and has even been operated successfully (until busted) by juveniles on the comment features of stock ticker websites (such as Yahoo's).
What is new (if it really is new, rather than just the first one widely reported) is doing the "pump" part by suckering PRWeb
rather implausible reports to start with (Score:5, Informative)
Consider ICOA has a market cap of around $800,000, Google would have to be really shit at negotiating to acquire them for $400 million.
Re: (Score:2)
Depends on what they have and what they do. Especially patents.
One would need to think more abstract that the current product, but bear with me a moment.
ICOA designs and installs wifi setups. They do this in all sorts of different areas (metro, hotels, airports etc.). Now lets say they have a patent on some tech that's only critical to one of those different areas.
Now lets say you're google, and you want to offer wifi service in mountain view, or the bay area, or all of california, all of the US, whateve
Re: (Score:2)
do both the decent thing and the useful thing, and buy them up.
Sure, but you don't just call them up and say "Hi, we're Google and we want to buy you." Instead you do it through a broker or shell company so you can conceal your identity, and conceal the reason (supposedly patents) you want to buy them. They don't find out who the buyer is until the price is agreed to.
Re: (Score:2)
ICOA.PK pump and dump (Score:4, Informative)
The ticker symbol is ICOA.PK. This is an operating company [icoacorp.com]? The stock has been around $0.0001. Even on the Pink Sheets, companies don't usually go that low. There are 3.49 billion shares outstanding. That's a market cap of $349,000. With the frantic trading today, the price briefly went all the way up to $0.0004.
Re:ICOA.PK pump and dump (Score:4, Informative)
Right, the stock ticker and the wireless company aren't the same, which means there are a lot of dumb people out there.
Re: (Score:2)
ICOA.PK is "icoacorp.com". They're a "wireless company" in a limited sense. Their business is installing WiFi nodes in airports, motels, trailer parks, etc. They provide a "Tollbooth" system of the kind found in hotels where you have to pay to get on the network. They were apparently reasonably successful at this around 2002-2009, but not so much since. They have no exciting technology and serve no key market that would be of interest to Google.
Yahoo's stock quotes show the stock declining from over $3
No problem (Score:2)
That's okay. I never believe these things unless Netcraft confirms it.
Maybe it was IKEA? (Score:1)
Google needs a continuing supply of inexpensive furniture, and besides their devs may have come up with some robotic furniture assembly algorithms during 20 percent time.
Re: (Score:2)
In Soviet Russia IKEA buy GOOGLE.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Aren't the "...in soviet russia" jokes more than played out now???? Srsly....
Indeed. More accurate would be:
In Soviet Russia, IKEA not exist. People buy furniture at local GUM!
(GUM is the Russian abbreviation for Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin or Gosudarstvennyi Universalnyi Magazin, which was the state run department store in largish cities in the old Soviet Union)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In Soviet Russia, joke plays YOU out.
Re: (Score:2)
I had to post in this thread because I have been using this sig for years.
NEVER!!! (Score:2)
Isn't that the whole point, that there is no point? It is the whole pointlessness of the joke that makes it funny. You're SUPPOSED to roll your eyes.
Re: (Score:1)
yeah, it's almost as interesting as news of a non-existing island found to be non existing.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Island_(New_Caledonia) [wikipedia.org]