Engadget Blunder Sends Apple Stock Falling

May 17, 2007 By Nick Mokey

A fake e-mail, which Engadget picked up and reported as news, triggered a massive Apple sell off within 15 minutes.

Spoof e-mails seldom cause more than a ripple in the ocean of Internet news, spreading through forums and blogs, and generally being regarded with skepticism. Unless, of course, Engadget accidentally picks one up. Then you have a tsunami.

That’s precisely what happened Wednesday when Engadget falsely reported that Apple was delaying two of its most anticipated products, Leopard OS X and the iPhone, based on a fake e-mail that appeared to come directly from Apple. The news generated more than confusion among Apple fans – it caused the company’s stock to plummet 2.2 percent in a matter of minutes.

The original story read, “This one doesn’t bode well for Mac fans and the iPhone-hopeful: we have it on authority that as of today, the iPhone launch is being pushed back from June to… October (!), and Leopard is again seeing a delay, this time being pushed all the way back to January.” It was posted at 11:49 a.m. EST, and 13 minutes later Apple’s stock was down from $107.89 a share to $103.42.

In the wake of the incident, Engadget was notified of the error and updated their story. The stock quickly rebounded, but Apple still closed the day down $1.40 a share, which represents $1.2 billion in market capital.

In their follow-up, Engadget claimed that the misleading e-mail did originate from Apple’s servers, but Apple denied this and insisted the headers must have been faked. In either case, the incident was a reminder to stockholders about the fallibility of online news, and a reminder to the journalists who produce it about the value of skepticism.

Showing 10 comments

Ethan at 12:14pm 18th May 2007 PC World reports on the incident:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004422...

And Wired: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/05/transparency...
Ethan at 10:06am 18th May 2007 Looks like Reuters picked this up. Way to screw yourself Engadget.

http://today.reuters.com/News/ArticleBlog.aspx?typ...
Anonymous at 8:51am 18th May 2007 i bet it did originate from apple, the execs just sold a bunch of stock, sent out a fake email, then bought back the stock when it plummeted. Steve Jobs is the kind of ass that would do such a thing.
desprod400 at 7:45am 18th May 2007 Apple does not owe any explanation or apology. Engadget does. Internal e-mail is confidential and intended for the named recipients only, which I'm sure did not include Engadget. Even if it was spoofed. So much for their "having it on authority". Their authority is apparently an un-named e-mail spoofer. Investing by emotions (fear, panic, love)will break you. Don't believe everything you see on TV or read in the papers... Oh, or on the internet.
Tank Jones at 10:05pm 17th May 2007 "An Apple representative confirmed that there has been no change in the company's schedule for both Leopard and the iPhone. "The communication is a fake and did not come from Apple," the representative said."

Looks like Engadget is nothing but a bunch of liars. Take what they say with a grain of salt!
TJ at 10:04pm 17th May 2007 http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/12603

Yikes, more Engadget bashing!

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9719952-7.html?pa...

Doh!
Ian Bell and Dan Gaul at 9:18pm 17th May 2007 Doh, busted! Go home Engadget, keep pumping out those quality rumors!
Ian Bell and Dan Gaul at 9:16pm 17th May 2007 To Aghast:

Thanks for the kind comments. We always welcome Engadget employees to the site, feel free to visit again. :)
Well Said at 9:13pm 17th May 2007 I found the article to be very solid, and well said. I didn't think it slandered Engadget at all. It stated what happened, as a result to Engadget's false reporting.
Aghast at 8:00pm 17th May 2007 Wow, what an unbiased and journalistically solid article. No wonder this site is such a joke and never gained any traction.