SEC to investigate Jobs heart attack iReport

Stock dropping stunt or 4chan prank?

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6 October 2008 14:12 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the false news that appeared on CNN's iReport website at the end of last week stating Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack.

The agency's enforcement unit is trying to determine if the report was intended to push down the company's stock price, or, if it was just a prank, attributed to 4chan by some.

The story read: "Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack", causing shares to fall as much as 5.4% almost straight away.

CNN - cooperating with the SEC's probe - removed the "entirely user-generated" new story and disabled the user's account as soon as it was brought to their attention.

Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said that stock would plummet by a quarter if Jobs were to "leave" for any reason.