Yelp Shares are Tanking and a Kickstarter Project Could Be the Reason A new documentary apparently shows alleged abuses by the customer review service.
By Myles Udland
This story originally appeared on Business Insider
Yelp shares were down as much as 4% in afternoon trade on Thursday, and traders are pointing to this Kickstarter project seeking to fund a documentary showing alleged abuses by the customer review service.
On Wednesday, Prost Production, which is raising money for the project, sent out a press release announcing the project.
Last week, we highlighted an interview with Kaylie Milliken, a documentary filmmaker involved in the project.
News of the release, first reported by The Fly, is putting Yelp shares under pressure on Thursday.
In a statement to Business Insider, a Yelp spokesperson said: "The director has a conflict of interest, as she has a history of trying to mislead consumers on Yelp. There is no merit to the claims they appear to highlight, which have been repeatedly dismissed by courts of law, investigated by government regulators, including the FTC, and disproven by academic study."
As of around 1:30 pm ET on Thursday, the movie had raised about $8,600 of its goal amount of $60,000 for the film.
Year-to-date, Yelp shares are down about 18%, and over the last year, the stock is down almost 50%.
You can watch the trailer for "Billion Dollar Bully" here:
