The Question Persists: Que Pasa With Quepasa?

When last I checked in on Quepasa (QPSA), the Hispanic Internet portal, the stock was hitting the skids, down 15% in a single session, with no obvious news. In an interview with Tech Trader Daily at that time, CEO Robert Stearns said the company had been contacted by a broker for founder and former CEO Jeffrey Peterson to see if the company was in a quiet period or not.

In other words, it looked like Patterson, still a major holder, was looking to sell some stock.

Well, Friday morning we had another big move in the stock - this time in the other direction. Quepasa shares were up 82 cents, or 19%, to $5.12, and have traded as high as $5.58. Volume in the stock tops 1 million shares, highly unusual for a stock which only occasionally trades more than 100,000 shares a day. The company has just 12.24 million shares outstanding.

So I ask the question again: Que pasa with Quepasa?

Well, there was one big development since I wrote about this last, which is that Peterson on Monday resigned from the company’s board. Then Friday morning, Peterson made a Rule 144 filing with the SEC announcing his intention to sell 275,000 shares of the company’s stock with an expected sale date of Friday. The filing also indicated that he had sold 50,000 shares of stock on May 17. The 50,000-share block cut his holdings to 952,360 shares; another 275,00 sold would knock him down to 677,360 shares.

I suppose the thinking here is that there is some advantage in clearing the overhang from Peterson’s position. Nothing fundamentally new seems to be going on, however. I’ll keep an eye on it, and pass along anything else that turns up.

QPSA 1-yr chart: