Dow Jones publishes fake headlines about Google acquiring Apple after ‘technical error’

Shortly after 9:30AM ET today, the Dow Jones apparently fell victim to a “technical error” and began to publish fake headlines about Google acquiring Apple through its newswire, according to reports on Twitter and as first spotted by 9to5Mac.

The newswire sent out a number of alerts about Google buying Apple for $9 billion (which, no) with a deal set to close tomorrow, while also mentioning Steve Jobs approved of the deal in his will. Obviously the reports were fake, and thankfully there was seemingly no effect by the error on the stock price of either company, likely because if you think Google could buy Apple for $9 billion, you probably aren’t conducting high-speed trades on the stock market.

In a statement to 9to5Mac, the Dow Jones apologized for the error. “Please disregard the headlines that ran on Dow Jones Newswires between 9:34AM ET and 9:36AM ET. Due to a technical error, the headlines were published. All of those headlines are being removed from the wires. We apologize for the error.”