Tulip mania’s got nothing on Cynk Technology — the social-network wannabe that’s not only revenue-free but very nearly employee-free.
Those operating impediments, however, couldn’t sink Cynk’s stock.
That took the Securities and Exchange Commission, which put the brakes on Cynk trading Friday after the stock topped out at $21.95 per share the day before.
Good reason, too, considering the stock’s peak price gave the company, with no revenue, a laughable business plan and a single Belize-based employee, a market cap of $6.4 billion.
That’s up from a market cap of $17.5 million as recently as June 16, when the same shares traded at 6 cents apiece.
The bottom-to-top increase since then? Try 36,500 percent — a gain based on no discernible news, no company statement and no product breakthrough.
In announcing the suspension in trading, which will remain in place through July 24, the SEC cited “potentially manipulative transactions.”
Those accused of doing the manipulating — not by the SEC but by financial bloggers — were penny-stock promoters.
And while their pump-and-dump tactics are anything but new, their taking their scheme to Twitter is.
Investor site Seeking Alpha found out early on about Cynk’s otherwise inexplicable run that “no fewer than a dozen stock promoters” were hyping the stock in their tweets.
The site even went public with this finding on June 18 when — at $2.10 per share — Cynk shares had yet to reach the stratosphere.