A bit more on the Emulex story:
"Emulex Plunge Sinks Nasdaq Composite and Competitors' Stocks
New York, Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The slide of more than 60 percent in Emulex Corp. shares following a bogus press release reverberated far beyond Emulex shareholders.
As Emulex sank, so did the U.S. stock market. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell as much as 1.4 percent from its high, and Emulex competitors Qlogic Corp., Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and JNI Corp. slumped.
Emulex shares plunged as much as 70 1/16, or 62 percent, to 43, after a fictitious press release issued by Internet Wire said Emulex Chief Executive Paul Folino resigned, that the company will restate reversed its fourth-quarter profit to a loss, and that it was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
An hour and a half later, Kirk Roller, the senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Costa Mesa, California, company, said the release was false.
By that point, Qlogic, which designs chips and circuit boards to link computers and data-storage systems, had lost a third of its market value in the rout. Brocade, a maker of computer switches for data-storage networks, dropped as much as 5.6 percent, and JNI, a maker of software and equipment that links servers and data storage devices, plunged 14 percent.
After the company said the news release was a hoax, shares pared losses and the market bounced back.
When trading in Emulex resumed at 1:30 New York time, the stock pared its loss, and was last down 4 5/8 to 108 7/16. Qlogic fell 4 11/16 to 105, while Brocade had slipped 4 3/4 to 213 9/16 and JNI dropped 2 3/8 to 62 1/2.
The Nasdaq composite, which fell as much as 0.7 percent, erased its loss and gained as much as 0.2 percent, only to slip lower again. The index declined 10.52, or 0.3 percent, to 4042.76." |
