When investors panic

[bellinghman]

Could United Airlines have just had a bit of luck bad enough to make it vulnerable to a takeover?

According to this BBC report, they've just had 75% wiped off the value of their shares on the basis of a story on the South Florida Sun Sentinel's web site saying that they'd sought protection from their creditors. Well, the story was apparently true, but ... six years out of date, being one that had resurfaced from archives.

In normal times, this would be interesting enough, but UA are losing a fortune, and a severely depressed share price is not good for any company.

Comments

[simonb.livejournal.com]

Saw that appear on BB at work, followed by a quick retraction. Apparently it was thanks to a industry news letter finding it on Google's news page, which had trawled it off the new paper's website which had had it on a side bar of "old news", but without an associated date.

Unsurprisingly, lawyers are already being involved. And I'd bet that the SEC is looking at short selling very closely as well.