'Google to buy Apple': Dow Jones newswires apologize for bizarre fake news

Dow Jones Newswires published multiple fake headlines shortly after markets opened Tuesday morning, sparking fears it had been hacked.

Headlines published Tuesday morning included: "DJ UPDATE: Google, Apple Join to Create Tech Giant," "DJ Google to buy Apple for $9 billion," "DJ Google Says Yay" and "DJ Google Says Steve Jobs Suggested this in His Will."

Dow Jones Senior Director of Communications Steve Severinghaus blamed a "technical error" for the bizarre statements later Tuesday.

"Please disregard the headlines that ran on Dow Jones Newswires between 9:34am ET and 9:36am ET. Due to a technical error, the headlines were published. All of those headlines are being removed from the wires,” Severinghaus said in the statement.

Apple Inc. has a current market capitalization of approximately $800 billion so the fake bid would likely have been rejected without question anyway.

In addition, Google would not be the bidder as the umbrella corporation Alphabet would handle any such takeover bids.

Severinghauss was quick to dismiss claims that the newswire was breached, telling Gizmodo “we absolutely were not hacked.”