SEC Probes Mamma.com After Share-Price Rise

Mamma.com Inc., which runs an Internet search engine, said Tuesday that it had received a notice that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating trading in the company’s stock after a recent surge in the price. The shares fell $1.54, or 9.8%, to $14.12 on Nasdaq.

Mamma.com Chairman David Goldman said in a statement that the Montreal-based company had complied with all accounting practices and SEC disclosure requirements.

Shares of Mamma.com have more than quadrupled this year. The SEC inquiry comes about three weeks after a filing disclosed that billionaire Mark Cuban held a 6.3% stake in the company. That report on March 16 sent the stock up 24%.

“I couldn’t care less if the SEC wants to look into day traders gone wild,” Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team, wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg News. “I just care about the operating success of the company.”

Cuban has said he bought the stock because the company generates cash and its website is better at tracking down pictures than other websites.

Mamma.com hasn’t had an annual profit since at least 1997. The company says about 10 million customers use its search engine each month.