Steve Jobs obituary published by Bloomberg

[.Kompressor]

:blink: I know he looked very thin at the last Apple speech..

Steve Jobs obituary published by Bloomberg

An obituary of very-much-alive Apple founder Steve Jobs has been accidentally published by the respected Bloomberg business news wire.

By Matthew Moore

Last Updated: 2:51PM BST 28 Aug 2008

The story, marked ?Hold for release ? Do not use?, was sent in error to the news service?s thousands of corporate clients.

The stock obituary was published "momentarily" after a routine update by a reporter, and was "immediately deleted", Bloomberg said.

Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, but there is no suggestion that the news wire has recent news on his health. Most media organisations regularly update their pre-prepared obituaries of newsworthy figures.

The obituary, which has been obtained by a US gossip blog, contained blank spaces for Jobs?s age and cause of death to be inserted.

The opening sentence described Jobs as the man who ?helped make personal computers as easy to use as telephones, changed the way animated films are made, persuaded consumers to tune into digital music and refashioned the mobile phone.?

The 2,500-word piece also included praise for Jobs from his rival Microsoft boss Bill Gates, details of his rise from college drop-out to technology billionaire, and a list of his family ?survivors?.

Details of friends and colleagues of the Apple founder to be contacted by Bloomberg in the event of his death were also published with the obituary.

Bloomberg, which was founded by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and prides itself on its accuracy and transparency, later published a note acknowledging the story's retraction on its wire.

?An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m.New York time today,? the message read.

?The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted.?

A Bloomberg spokeswoman said: "This was a routine update of a biography by the obits department, meant for the internal system and not meant for publication.

"It was momentarily posted on the external wire, in error, and immediately deleted."

Jobs has been reluctant to publicly discuss his health, but recently denied claims that his cancer had returned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...-Bloomberg.html

[Mathachew Veteran]

Do they know something the rest of the world doesn't?

[Eric Veteran]

Jobs: "I'm not dead yet! I feel happy!" *bonk*

[qdave]

they are burying a great man too early :(

[neufuse Veteran]

The rumors of his death have been greatly exagerated :rofl:

[torrentthief]

maybe he will be assasinated and this was the article that was going to be released. Stranger things have happened.

[Lasker]

In the conference of MacWorld 2008 (June 2008) I saw him very, very skinny, almost dead :o

[Coldgunner]

Wouldn't it be great if it turned out that Bill Gates sent it?

[.Kompressor]

kind of irresponsible of Bloomberg considering they know how news of this will impact Apple's Stock price.....in a negative way.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

Makes sense. It means that they can immediately publish the obituary when he dies instead of starting the research at that point.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Serves them right for all the vista bashing

[spacer]

I see no down side to this being premature or not.

[digitalsoft]

Wow, this is very interesting! Why would Bloomberg even have an obituary for someone who is alive?? - Maybe ol' jobs is dieing n sold the rights to publish his obituary...:s

[The Teej]

Zombie Steve Jobs will still rule Apple, he'll just eat brains of every employee there :shifty:

Seriously though, .Kompressor is correct, this is extremely irresponsible of Bloomberg, accident or not. Quite frankly, the obituary should have been deleted as soon as the cancer was killed off. Oh well, someone's now officially fired from Bloomberg :rofl:

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Wow, this is very interesting! Why would Bloomberg even have an obituary for someone who is alive?? - Maybe ol' jobs is dieing n sold the rights to publish his obituary...:s

Makes sense. It means that they can immediately publish the obituary when he dies instead of starting the research at that point.

It's a time saver for them, write it up in advance with blank spots, and fill them in with information when it really happens.

[Echilon]

It's a time saver for them, write it up in advance with blank spots, and fill them in with information when it really happens.

That though sickens me. I'm not a mac fan, but Steve Jobs is an icon in computing, and to write up a stock obituary for him before he's even dead is disgusting. :no:

[tsupersonic]

Well knowing Steve Jobs is a total control freak, he probably wants Bloomberg to print his obituary first :lol:

[Quillz]

iDie: A new product from Steve Jobs

Except now he's alive, so he will unveil tomorrow the all-new iLive.

[rajputwarrior]

i wish they would stop spreading this stuff, my apples stock aren't enjoying it very much.

[grik]

I bet the reporter who made the glitch was using VISTA :D

hehehe

[.Kompressor]

I bet the reporter who made the glitch was using VISTA :D

hehehe

ROFL. he probably decided let's do this in advance because next week this crap pc could just get spyware or BSOD and die.

but seriously I'm sure the person who wrote it probably doesn't have a job. unless Bill is playing tricks on Steve again to screw up Apple's stock. lol

[splicer707]

So did the guy who pushed publish on this story, keep his job?

[General Disarray]

That though sickens me. I'm not a mac fan, but Steve Jobs is an icon in computing, and to write up a stock obituary for him before he's even dead is disgusting. :no:

why? who cares? they do it for everyone newsworthy and tv/news already film stuff for it long before someone dies

its not like writing it curses him or something...

[Skanks]

That though sickens me. I'm not a mac fan, but Steve Jobs is an icon in computing, and to write up a stock obituary for him before he's even dead is disgusting. :no:

It's fairly standard practise for them to write up obituary's while people are still alive for anyone important. It means they don't have to scramble to write it when someone actually does die. Lot's of newspapers etc do this.

[Mikeparkie]

And they said Windows 7 would be a killer ;)