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Pastimes : Business Wire Falls for April Fools Prank, Sues FBNers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonkie who wrote (209)	4/28/1999 12:31:00 AM
From: Jack Colton	Respond to of 3795

Kathy and BW has blown it. All they have done is hurt themselves in this action. I can't believe they are so inane. I used to work in a place with people who would think just like Kathy and her peers. I watched the small minded people take our market making and leading organization, and in 4 short years, make it a blip in the market we had created and once dominated. The same will happen to BW. Good riddance. Jack

To: zonkie who wrote (209)	4/28/1999 12:57:00 AM
From: zonkie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3795

Link to update of original Bloomberg article. news.com z........

To: zonkie who wrote (209)	4/28/1999 1:30:00 AM
From: Clever Nick Name	Respond to of 3795

Looong time ago, this was... If I am recalling the saga correctly, the release claimed that olympus ventures (ovis) had failed to keep up their business license in Washington State and that another company (turned out to be non-existant, i think) had registered and was operating under that name. They may have gone as far as to imply that it wasn't legal to trade the stock since the company didn't exist. OVIS kept trading until it became RMIL which was halted, etc. etc.. you all know the standard BB story. The release was eventually traced to a broker associated with a company that was short OVIS/RMIL. [and what a wise move that turned out to be...] Digging through the post a minute ovis thread would be pretty painful to get the details, but it might be worth it if things go to discovery.

To: zonkie who wrote (209)	4/28/1999 3:00:00 AM
From: EL KABONG!!!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3795

zonkie, Here is the link to the original BW release alleged to be fraudulent: Message 2201129 Here are some poster reactions on that thread to the alleged fake release: Message 2201402 Message 2201772 (BW isn't it?) Message 2203733 Here are some poster reactions on a different thread to the alleged fake release: exchange2000.com exchange2000.com exchange2000.com exchange2000.com exchange2000.com (Hmmm...) exchange2000.com (Not my words) exchange2000.com (BW notified) exchange2000.com (a true believer) exchange2000.com (Riley G) exchange2000.com (BW notified) exchange2000.com (BW commentary) exchange2000.com exchange2000.com exchange2000.com (How did I know?) exchange2000.com (BW notified) exchange2000.com (how???) Later references to Dow Jones... exchange2000.com (Pugs) exchange2000.com (Ellen) And here we have a correction from the "real" OVIS people (there are multiple items here; go down to near the bottom): Message 2236871 But if you read through these links, you'll see that: 1) Business Wire was faked out in this instance. I believe that a statement attributed to a BW Vice-President said they'd never encountered something of this magnitude before. Well, I'll just let you judge for yourselves if an April Fool's Joke and parody is of the same magnitude as something like this instance. 2) Business Wire was apparently notified early enough to make a retraction. I couldn't find one. That doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, I just couldn't find any links to one. 3) To the best of my knowledge, Business Wire did not sue the perpetrators of this alleged hoax, which was with a real company (at that time), where real people were in a position to lose investment capital, where real people were led to believe that because the release was under the Business Wire logo that the content must be true, and where the company itself (presumably for the standard fee, I don't know) had to issue its' own correction. This situation would seem to be at odds with the statement attributed to the same Business Wire Vice-President who stated that when Business Wire is made aware of any false statements they take appropriate action. I would remind you that in this case the alleged fake release allegedly came from a California law firm, and it's anyone's guess as to why Business Wire chooses to go after amateur posters on an internet chat room and not pursue a California law firm that allegedly did the same thing on behalf of a client's monetary interests. Perhaps a member of the press that may be lurking this thread can re-interview the Business Wire Vice-President and get some answers? Seems to me like Business Wire may be employing a double standard here. Almost like a David and Goliath scenario, wouldn't you say? Comments or opposing opinions anyone??? KJC