Gullible blog wipes $4bn off Apple

Pity the poor investor who sold Apple shares at $103.42 per share, today, after reading a blog report on delays to the iPhone. The rumor, posted to AOL's Engadget gadget site early this morning, briefly knocked $4bn off Apple's market value. Engadget, taken in by a spoof Apple internal email, reported the company's two most important new launches would be delayed, a new cellphone until October, and the computer company's new operating system till January.

Now, everyone can make mistakes. Valleywag thought the the securities regulators would go after Apple's chief executive, more aggressively, after his former finance guy betrayed him. But it takes a certain kind of naivete to think Apple would have hidden delays at its recent earnings call; or that such market-moving news would go out in a company-wide email before the company had told Wall Street.

Here's the interesting question. Someone, who bought on the panic, made a serious profit on today's little blog embarrassment. It could be that Engadget was just the victim of a prank. Or, more seriously, that it was in fact a pawn in some trader's clever market-spooking scheme.

[Disclosure: AOL's Engadget is the main competitor to Gizmodo, Gawker Media's gadget blog. And Gawker Media also owns Valleywag.]

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