‘Baby Shark’ backer gets a bounce from Elon Musk tweet
Elon Musk has turned his attention from Shiba Inu dogs to baby sharks — and investors are singing along.
The Tesla CEO’s tweet late Tuesday about the viral YouTube song “Baby Shark” has boosted the stock of Samsung Publishing, a major shareholder in the tune’s producer, SmartStudy.
“Baby Shark crushes all! More views than humans,” Musk wrote, referring to the catchy children’s song, which became the most viewed video ever on YouTube in November.
Soon after that tweet, Samsung Publishing’s stock surged as much as 10% to 49,000 won ($44) in South Korea. It lost some of those gains later, but still closed up some 6%, its best day in nearly a month.
The South Korean publishing company is SmartStudy’s second-largest shareholder, with an 18% stake in the entertainment firm. Samsung Publishing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Market mover
“Baby Shark,” a song about a family of sharks, has more than eight billion views on YouTube. Recorded by Korean-American singer Hope Segoine, the song was first uploaded onto the platform in 2016, and has since become one of the world’s most recognized tunes, even breaking the Billboard Top 100 in 2019.
Musk sent his tweet, which included the video of the song, in response to a video shared by the official South Park account about popular meme stars battling it out.
The billionaire’s tweets regularly move markets. For several months now, Musk has been chatting about Dogecoin — the cryptocurrency that features the face of a Shiba Inu dog — and sending it on a wild ride.
In April, the virtual currency soared more than 100% after Musk said “Doge Barking at the moon” in a tweet.
In one tweet in May, Musk shared a parody of the famous movie poster of “Jaws.” A crumpled dollar was the substitute for the hapless swimmer about to get attacked, and the infamous shark was replaced with a giant dog. DOGE appeared in big red letters at the top, with the caption “You’ll never use the dollar again.”
Musk has moved cryptos in the other direction, too. Earlier in May, a single-word tweet by him sent bitcoin on a downward spiral.
His tweets about his own businesses have previously landed him in trouble with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Tesla lawyers must pre-approve Musk’s tweets, if they concern the company’s financial condition, production numbers or new business lines.
The SEC notified Tesla that two of Musk’s tweets from 2019 and 2020 — one about Tesla’s solar roof production volumes and one about the company’s stock price — hadn’t received the required pre-approval, the Wall Street Journal reported.
— Jake Kwon contributed to this report.
