Dow Jones blames 'technical error' for news claiming Google would buy Apple

Posted:
in AAPL Investors
Dow Jones' newswire service is now saying that a "technical error" was responsible for headlines claiming Google was buying Apple, which may have briefly inflated the latter company's stock price.

Image Credit: Trader 53 on Twitter
Image Credit: Trader 53 on Twitter


"Please disregard the headlines that ran on Dow Jones Newswires between 9:34 a.m. ET and 9:36 a.m. ET," the company said in a statement. "Due to a technical error, the headlines were published. All of those headlines are being removed from the wires. We apologize for the error."

The headlines and their associated story were obviously fake, for instance claiming that Google said "yay," that it would "move into Apple's fancy headquarters," and that shareholders would each get nine shares of Apple stock. The story even suggested that Google would pay just $9 billion, when in reality Apple has over $260 billion in cash reserves alone.

It's not clear where the content came from. Most likely it was test material that was accidentally pushed live.

Apple's price on the NASDAQ notably spiked between 9:30 and 9:40 a.m. Eastern, leaping from $155.98 to $156.47. It began to crash around 9:55 a.m., bottoming out at $155.22 before recovering.

Apple and Google have partnered in some areas but are also close rivals, competing in services, platforms, and more recently hardware. Google is on its second generation of self-designed smartphones, and Apple's Siri-equipped HomePod speaker will have to compete with the Google Home Max.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    cornchipcornchip Posts: 1,945member
    Amazing.
  • Reply 2 of 33
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    9 Billion... who believed this?

    How did a troll get ahold of the Dow Jones Newswires?
    chiajbdragonLukeCagebb-15dysamoriacornchipwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 33
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    I don't even understand how this could happen. Was this jokey data that was setup for testing or demo purposes?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 33
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    Technical issue? I guess, if in the context you say technically someone is a dumb*ss.
    calijbdragonstompyanton zuykovviclauyycwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 33
    Big question would be why this clearly ridiculous (and bad for Apple) “announcement” would cause Apple stocks to GO UP... because selling a company for a fraction of what it’s worth is good for business? And an increase from 155.98 to 156.47 isn’t a leap or spike. It’s a slow day at Apple.
    edited October 2017 calirich gregoryLukeCagezroger73dave marshjbdragoncornchipradster360chiawatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 33
    welshdogwelshdog Posts: 1,896member
    Soli said:
    I don't even understand how this could happen. Was this jokey data that was setup for testing or demo purposes?
    Probably yes some sort of testing or place holding. I used to work in television news and people were always doing things they shouldn't and sometimes it got on air.  One guy at the master control switcher liked to watch the Carson show at 10:30 on his preview monitor - this was at a CBS station in Austin.  One day something happened that got him a bit panicked, he stabbed a button and put the Tonight Show on CBS air for a few seconds.  Sometimes, when creating Chyron text pages for later in the news, people would type in fake stuff as a place holder - to be replaced when the actual info arrived in the station.  Inevitably, one of these pages either partially or in full would hit the air during a newscast, followed by much screaming and cursing at the Chyron operator.  I'm betting this is exactly what happened today.
    Soliking editor the grateGG1randominternetpersonviclauyyccornchipchia
  • Reply 7 of 33
    YoSamCapsFanYoSamCapsFan Posts: 9unconfirmed, member
    Uh, $.50 is not a "leap" in Apple's stock price, nor is -1 a "crash." How about a little less hype?
    edited October 2017 StrangeDaystdknoxdave marshrandominternetpersonjbdragonwlymcornchipchiajony0
  • Reply 8 of 33
    I've had a couple of jokes intended for staff end up in newsprint during my 24 years in the business. I learned to thoroughly, insanely quarantine such items to prevent them from hitting press. I've seen items in major newspapers such as "cutline here cutline here cutline here" and "First line of deck; second line of deck; plus one more."
    calicornchipchiawelshdog
  • Reply 9 of 33
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,821member
    “Steve Jobs Suggested this in His Will”

    riiiiight! lol, as if...

    king editor the gratecornchipchiawatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 33
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Big question would be why this clearly ridiculous (and bad for Apple) “announcement” would cause Apple stocks to GO UP... because selling a company for a fraction of what it’s worth is good for business? And an increase from 155.98 to 156.47 isn’t a leap or spike. It’s a slow day at Apple.
    It isn’t a spike at all but if the “spike” makes Apple look bad maybe it’ll make headlines etc. 
  • Reply 11 of 33
    Its the sources whom we believe or not
  • Reply 12 of 33
    While this might seem inconceivable.  I remember when the much smaller Porsche tried to by VW
  • Reply 13 of 33
    The real check is did any media publishing this obviously false news without checking?
  • Reply 14 of 33
    Big question would be why this clearly ridiculous (and bad for Apple) “announcement” would cause Apple stocks to GO UP... because selling a company for a fraction of what it’s worth is good for business? And an increase from 155.98 to 156.47 isn’t a leap or spike. It’s a slow day at Apple.
    Very good question, why would this news cause APPL stock to go up. How would selling a company at a fraction of its price, make it go up. Also wouldn’t it be Alphabet buying not google, both smaller companies than Apple. 
  • Reply 15 of 33
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member
    “Steve Jobs Suggested this in His Will”

    riiiiight! lol, as if...

    Someone can’t take a joke well
  • Reply 16 of 33
    Shouldn't it have been the other way round? i.e. Apple buying Google (and then closing it down) >:)
    watto_cobrawelshdog
  • Reply 17 of 33
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,796member
    The Dow Jones is a technical error itself...
    caliviclauyyc
  • Reply 18 of 33
    Dow Jones is now entered in fake news business. Right on! 
    caliviclauyyc
  • Reply 19 of 33
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,821member
    “Steve Jobs Suggested this in His Will”

    riiiiight! lol, as if...

    Someone can’t take a joke well
    Someone tries hard at trolling...again. guess you missed the “laughing out loud”
    edited October 2017 watto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 33
    spice-boyspice-boy Posts: 1,450member
    Putin is up to his tricks again proving how dim half of America really is. 
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