AAPLsauce
Pity the poor Apple investors who closed out their position in the company after
reading an erroneous report yesterday that the launches of the highly anticipated iPhone and Leopard operating system had been delayed. “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–of 2008,” Engadget reported. “The latest WWDC Leopard beta will still be handed out, but it looks like Apple quality takes time, and we’re sure Jobs would remind everyone that it’s not always about ‘writing a check,’ but just how much time are these two products really going to take?”
Shares of Apple slipped on the news, falling to $103.42 from $107.89 in about six minutes. And the company’s market capitalization dropped by $4 billion. Problem was, the report was erroneous–based on a bogus internal memo broadcast to an unknown number of Apple employees and subsequently passed on to Engadget. Apple was quick to quell the rumor–issuing a press release assuring investors that both products will ship on schedule. And the company’s stock soon recovered. But that did little to appease investors outraged by the market-moving story. “What a joke,” wrote one Engadget reader. “Engadget posts unsubstantiated rumor, AAPL drops. Engadget later posts correction, stock fails to fully bounce back. Reckless and irresponsible, Engadget. Thanks a lot. Your ‘source’ doesn’t happen to sit in an office in Redmond by any chance?”