Dow Jones accidentally publishes headline claiming Google purchased Apple

By Heather Hamilton, contributing writer

In an era of fake news and too-eager reporting, it may come as no surprise that even the Dow Jones newswire recently reported a very-much-false headline with gigantic implications to the tech world. Live for just two minutes, the newswire reported that Google had purchased Apple for just $9 billion (roughly 1% of Apple’s value), an image that has been screenshotted and shared since the misstep.

Headlines claimed that Apple and Google had reached sale terms. 9to5Mac first identified the faulty news report. After noticing their error, Dow Jones quickly deleted the fake report from the wire, though Apple’s stock price had already jumped from $156 to $158, likely the result of automatic computer algorithms that are not equipped to identify such mistakes.

The posted article suggested that the deal was made as part of Steve Jobs’ will and secret talks with Alphabet CEO and Google co-founder Larry Page prior to his death. Obviously written with an awareness for humor, the report said that Google staff would be forced to move into “Apple’s fancy headquarters” at 1 Infinite Loop, mentioning that Google employees responded by saying “Yay.” The article mentioned that each Google employee would receive nine Apple shares for every Google stock owned and that the deal would close tomorrow (the day after publication). They described the acquisition as a “surprise move to everyone who is alive.”

The resulting correction apologized for the story, citing a technical error. In a statement to Mashable, Dow Jones said that they regret the erroneous headlines published between 9:34 and 9:36, published as part of a technology test.

“I take today’s inadvertent and erroneous publication of testing materials extremely seriously,” wrote CEO William Lewis. “While immediate corrective action has been taken, I have also ordered a review of news and technology processes in this area.”

Ars Technica writes that it isn’t out of the ordinary for news organizations to create this sort of content for testing purposes, and it had happened in the past. Unfortunately, somebody, likely accidentally, published the fake story. And in case there aren’t enough red flags in the story to immediately prove its falsehood, Ars Technica points out that Larry Page hasn’t held the title of Chief Executive since Alphabet was created in 2015, and that Apple is a public company, which means that Jobs couldn’t possibly arrange a sale in his will, which the article claimed had been read in Cupertino, California.