By: Mark Fitzgerald In a chain of events that was still not clear Monday afternoon, the price of United Airlines stock plunged from more than $12 a share to just a penny in early Nasdaq trading -- all because of a six-year-old Chicago Tribune story reporting on the airline's previous Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
United said the trouble started when the old story was posted on the Web site of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, another Tribune Co. newspaper. Editors there said they had not determined how the long-expired story got on its site.
Some reports said the real damage to United stock occurred when the story was picked up by Bloomberg wires.
A Tribune spokesman said he was unable to add much clarity to the situation, issuing this statement: "We have been informed that a 2002 Chicago Tribune news report about United Airlines' financial condition was picked up and circulated on the Internet Monday morning. The story is not current. We are looking into the situation."
The immediate damage was evident enough, though: Shares of Chicago-based United, which opened Monday at $12.16, dropped to 1 cent before Nasdaq halted trading at about 10 a.m. EDT.
Trading resumed about 90 minutes later, and the stock at 1:22 p.m. was trading at $11.22, down $1.08, or 8.77%.
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