On Friday a report that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital spawned a frenzy in Apple’s stock. Now the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation into whether the false report was an effort to hurt the company’s stock, according to CNN spokesperson Jennifer Martin.
Apple’s shares plunged Friday from $106.50 to $94.65 after a “citizen’s journal” report was posted on CNN’s iReport Web site.
The report said “Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven’t seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it.”
iReport is CNN’s public journalism Web site, which allows users to post videos and photos showing news from their local towns. iReport was launched in 2006 and was bought by CNN last January and relaunched in March.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s spokesperson, John Heine, said staff members are not authorized to confirm or deny whether the SEC “is investigating or not investigating” a company. But Martin said the company has been contacted by the SEC looking for information regarding the person who posted the message.
“The SEC has contacted iReport.com and we are certainly cooperating with them,” Martin told us in a phone interview. “The report was taken off (the Web site) on Friday morning and the user’s, who submitted that report, account was canceled.”
Apple issued a statement Friday denying the…