iPhone Rumor Causes 4 Billion Dollar Stock Bounce

Ever since Apple announced the iPhone four months ago, there has been so much speculation surrounding the phone that Apple has even threatened legal action against bloggers. The speculation was heavy this week as Engadget incorrectly reported that there would be four month delay in iPhone’s release—from June to October. This caused ripples throughout the stock market and within 12 minutes Apple stock lost 4 billion dollars. Engadget based their report on an internal Apple email that was forwarded to them from a “trustworthy source.”

Engadget has since published a lengthy explanation on how the mistake occurred. It appears someone spoofed Apple's internal email system. Engadget acknowledges that “credibility and trust is the currency of our realm, and it's clear we lost some of that.” They also emphasize that they “had confirmation from within Apple that this was in fact information that been distributed via Apple's internal corporate email system.” Most major bloggers support Engaget. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington reported, “Engadget handled the situation with an appropriate degree of professionalism” and indicated that he would have published the news given the same information. Carlo Longino from Techdirt agrees and argues that investors should not blame a blog but the original “players spreading the disinformation.”