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Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1937
The Dow Jones newswire accidentally published a fake story about Google buying Apple:
A bombshell appeared on the Dow Jones financial newswire on Tuesday: "Google to buy Apple for $9bn".
But the story, that the acquisition had been suggested in the will of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, was bogus. It was removed after two minutes, though Apple's shares did briefly rise in value. Dow Jones said the news appeared as the result of a "technical error" and should be ignored.
The unintentionally published fake news described the acquisition as "a surprise move to everyone who is alive" and quoted Google employees as saying "Yay". It also stated that Google would move into "Apple's fancy headquarters".
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Dow Jones: "Google Acquires Apple" News Story Was "Error"
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Hey, wait a minute!! I want a divorce!! ... you're not Clint Eastwood!!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @03:29AM (3 children)
On the one hand the story is an obvious fake on its face. Google can't just buy Apple suddenly, and the purchase would almost certainly be blocked. If it were real, there would be some division of Apple being sold, and the news would be "maybe." Then there's the value attached. Apple has to be worth more than that (as others have noted.)
But what really makes me wonder is: how was this ever drafted? The details read like random BS plugged into a news template. Maybe someone was testing just that sort of thing. I mean, read everything they quoted, it's exactly the kind of not-for-real-consumption wording I have used as slugs to test UIs. The fact that this affected stock values is frightening though.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 12 2017, @03:35AM
When your (high frequency) trading is done by algorithms...
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Funny) by lx on Thursday October 12 2017, @04:14AM
The AI was testing a new strategy.
The AI needs money to make more paperclips.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @07:59AM
It sounds exactly like someone mixed up the test and production system.
You always find completely out there stuff in test systems, it's the only fun developers get, and this sounds just like something you would find in a test system.