Shares of Zoom Video (ZM), a provider of remote conferencing services using cloud computing, has seen its stock rise as investors bet that increased travel restrictions inside and outside China due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak could drive higher demand for online video conference calls.
Yesterday, Facebook (FB) said it had "made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person component" of its F8 Developer conference "in light of the growing concerns around COVID-19." Earlier this month, Mobile World Congress, scheduled for February 24 to 27 in Barcelona, was cancelled after Facebook, Cisco (CSCO), Intel (INTC), Nvidia (NVDA), Sony (SNE) and AT&T (T) said they would not attend.
Additionally, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Nestle (NSRGY) has asked hundreds of thousands of its world-wide employees to temporarily postpone all overseas business travel. The company is asking staff to curtail domestic travel, too, and to substitute trips with phone calls or video chats where possible.
Meanwhile, an unrelated business technology company with a similar name is once again seeing its stock rocket higher amid the move up for Zoom Video. Zoom Technologies (ZOOM), which is said to not have reported revenue since 2011 and apparently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to end its public listing, is nearly 50% higher in Friday morning trading after having surged more than 50% higher on Thursday. The Chinese company's stock is traded on the over-the-counter OTC exchange that is generally reserved for riskier "penny stocks," which is a designation it would have qualified for prior to the IPO of Zoom Video, which had previously started the surge for shares of the "wrong" Zoom.
As of the time of this writing, Zoom Video shares are up $3.14, or 2.8%, to $116.80, while shares of Zoom Technologies are up $2.61, or 48%, to $8.11.
Zoom Video
+3.39 (+2.98%)
Zoom Technologies
+ (+0.00%)