I saw in the news recently that Koss has become the latest “meme stock,” and that surprised me. But the more I looked into it, the more I realized how much it made sense — and how much my own generally positive history with the brand made me ignore their stark lack of innovation over the last several years.
The meme stock phenomenon most famously happened with the huge Gamestop short squeeze three years ago. Influential investors convinced a whole jittery cadre of online amateurs to buy up a forgotten stock in the hopes of making big money. It’s all rather questionable to me and reeks of possible market manipulation, and it even lead to full scale government investigations with strong recommendations for regulatory changes. The first meme stock explosion also lead to lots of normal people losing cash while a few firms and shrewd investors got rich off of it, and left in its wake a whole cult-like group of folks holding on for the next big “opportunity.”
Koss makes a lot of sense as the next “meme stock” victim, if that’s even the right word. Like Gamestop, they’re a company that once sat at the front of an industry, but they’re now sliding ever-slowly down a long hill making only meager attempts to keep up as the world changes around them…
