SANTA CLARA, CA: Extreme Networks fell prey to the posting of a
fraudulent press release in an internet chatroom last week, causing
trading on its stock to be suspended.
The release, which was disguised to resemble a PR Newswire release, was
posted in a Yahoo! Finance chatroom.
Extreme was alerted to the situation by Nasdaq, which ceased trading
when it was rumoured the company would be buying Florida-based broadband
tech firm Viasource Communications.
Viasource's share-price jumped from the equivalent of £0.06 to
£0.12 on the news. Extreme rose by 68p to £6.80.
Extreme reported the news to its PR firm, Voce Communications.
The company issued a statement denying the purchase within an hour of
the alert.
Viasource issued a release about four hours after the news broke.
Edited by Holly Williams.
