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Apple blogged, stock tanks. Wow!

By Dominic Jones on May 17, 2007

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ANYONE who still thinks blogs are irrelevant to what happens on the stock market should read this story.

During the middle of the trading day, top blog Engadget posted an item based on what it thought was an internal company email saying Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was delaying its highly anticipated iPhone and its new operating software.

Seven minutes later, Apple shares dropped on huge volume, plunging from $107.89 to $104.63 in the space of six minutes, according to the Google Finance chart shown below.

stock chart

AAPL stock fell almost 3% within minutes of the Engadget post.

It turns out that the email, which was made to look like an internal Apple email and actually was distributed to company employees before being sent by someone inside the company to Engadget, was a fake. The fake email and the company’s redaction of it are provided at the end of this post.

Many blogs are now dissecting the incident. Kevin Kelleher of GigaOM says the reaction to the news demonstrates how much investors are depending on iPhone to boost Apple’s fortunes. He also comments on the seemingly sophisticated nature of the scam. “The SEC has its work cut out for it,” he says.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, a lawyer by training, wonders who might be the target of law suits over the incident. He doesn’t think Engadget can be faulted, but Apple may be liable if the email originated from its servers, he says.

For me, only one thing about this is surprising. It’s that more people in the investor relations community don’t realize just how closely Wall Street is following blogs.

The emails at the center of the storm follow:

Original Apple email

From: Bullet News
Date: May 16, 2007 9:09 AM CDT
To: [redacted]
Subject: Mac OS X Leopard and iPhone Delayed
Mac OS X Leopard Delayed Until January
iPhone Delayed Until October
REGIONS: Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Japan, Latin America, United States
GROUPS: AppleCare, Retail
Apple
issued a press release today announcing that iPhone which was scheduled
to ship in June, has been moved to October and the release date for Mac
OS X Leopard has been moved to January next year. A beta version of Mac
OS X Leopard will be given to developers at the Worldwide Developers
Conference (WWDC).

Apple email redaction

From: [redacted]
Date: May 16, 2007 10:47 AM CDT
To: [redacted]
Subject: NEWS: Disregard Bullet*News Sent May 16 at Approximately 9 a.m. Central–AP/CA/EU/JP/LA/US
You may have received what appeared to be a Bullet*News from Apple. This communication is fake and did not come from Apple.
Apple is on track to ship iPhone in late June and Mac OS X Leopard in October.


Dominic Jones

Dominic (bio & disclosures) is IR Web Report‘s founder and an online investor relations consultant. He advises leading public companies and investor relations service providers worldwide on using the web for disclosure, engagement and profile building. You can contact him via the contacts page.

Posted in , | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Responses

  • http://www.sandlercommunications.com Gabe Sandler

    Wow, chalk one up to my compliance sixth sense.. This message was sent to Apple Computer by me earlier this week (and no, I am not shorting AAPL):

    As you may or may not be aware, electronic disclosure must be certified by Apple as a measure of due diligence, and I am volunteering to do this basic compliance check as a lifetime Apple user working in the financial markets, a lonely combination I assure you. I am personally willing to moderate the board for regulatory and compliance risks, particularly those related to electronic disclosure as regulated by Sarbanes-Oxley compliance standards 302/802. I feel it is important to plug as many holes and potential gaps in the system as possible, and fear that certain message boards and company-endorsed listserv posts would/could produce significant risks to the market of insider trading (perceived or actual) and also possibly affect the global digital reputation of Apple Computer.

    While I realize this is probably not the ideal definition of a “moderator”, it couldn’t hurt to consider the need that I am describing, and to picture that I am offering Apple this service for free because I feel it is that important to the long-term growth of the company to see Apple start making itself an XBRL-reporting SOX compliant website that acts as a serious competitor in the financial markets, maybe even the leader.

    Due diligence and compliance can be the same thing; doing nothing would be a huge mistake for the company during such an exciting time for Apple’s public market success.

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