A news release saying Samsung was purchasing a Swedish tech company for $650 million was published on Dow Jones before it was discovered to be false.
Sven Grundberg of The Wall Street Journal writes, “Dow Jones & Co.’s newswires republished the release from the Cision news release service. The release was removed from the Dow Jones service and a correction was published. Dow Jones, owned by News Corp., is the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
“It is the latest in a string of bogus releases. In April, a fake news release was distributed that said Chinese search giant Baidu Inc. made an offer to acquire social-gaming company Zynga Inc. And in November last year, a fake news release posted on PRWeb.com said that Google Inc. had acquired wireless provider IOCA Inc. for $400 million. Both companies quickly debunked the news.
“In an interview Friday afternoon, Cision CEO Magnus Thell said ‘we’ve got a control system, but in this case it was breached.’ Cision’s shares closed down 5.4% on Friday.”
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