Zapylacz – Blog

Posts Tagged ‘stock crash’

Companies/people in the United States might have understood but Indian firms are still playing the waiting game. All of a sudden with major magazines like BusinessToday and Dare having their cover stories on the importance of social media, there is so much social media hype that companies have totally misunderstood what’s the real sense of social media.
For the same reason we have started a series of articles that will make all you business owners to think that probably you should be using it before it gets too late.
The first case is a United Airlines stock crash case. Although the story goes back to last year i.e. September ‘08 but stills it clearly delivers the message.

The Case : A chicago tribune story prompted the United Airlines Stock to crash by 99.2% in barely 2 hours time before the trading had to be suspended on the stock.
The Reason for crash : A Chicago tribune report says that United has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Hence stock prices plummeted.
The Reality : United filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2002. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2006. But someone read the article and not finding the date, thought the report to be latest. Luck was on the other side as both the rising oil prices and recession prompted the people to believe the report to be true. The story was available on chicago tribune website and spread virally like wildfire which resulted in the airlines’ stock prices crash.
It was only after the airlines spokesperson confirmed the report was false that the trading resumed and stock prices rose back to normal. Later on United asked Chicago times to remove the archived story to avoid a repeat.
That’s the power of internet ! I guess it cannot be denied that THIS or something SIMILAR can happen to any of the companies. As it is said “Bad news travels fast“.
Point to Learn : You need to keep an eye all the time to see what’s happening and who’s playing with your brand value in order to protect it.