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Four Insiders Charged With Revealing Product Plans of Apple, Dell, and Others

The only thing they should nail these guys for is the iPhone Q3 sales numbers. That is definitely insider information.

Those supposed "bombshells" were well known in more detail before this guy leaked them. For heavens sake, we had rumors of front and rear cameras for the iPhone 3Gs -- whoop-dee-dooo if this guy says he heard there will be such a thing on the next iPhone. I wish somebody would have paid me $22,000 for that information (you could have gotten it by reading these rumor sites).

Regarding the whole K48 thing.... he gives nothing about a release date for it or a description of what it is (e.g.: a tablet). Hey, if anybody is willing to pay, I can confirm that Apple has at least one super-secret project going on with a three-character code name, and if you even utter the code name you could get fired. The only information this guy gives is "new class of product" and "won't have a camera". There was far better speculation on the iPad a whole 3 years prior to its release.

So while I believe folks should keep to their word and abide by their NDAs, I think the only thing you will be able to nail these guys on are the sales figures. Everything else was less substantial than speculation already in rumor-ville, and he did little to confirm or deny rumors with his vague information. Insider information is about having the upper-hand on others for trading purposes.
 
Can we charge Stevie if he continues to be a bi*** about holding Macs back? Prison rape :eek: But Magical prison rape.

<sarcasm BTW> Dont really wish that on anyone.
 
3goldens said:
Makes me laugh that the moronic corporate analysts would actually pay for something like this when better information just comes in just anonymously anyway.
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Where do you think lots of the leaks to sites like this come from? Don't be naive.

The "analysts" tribe people in the supply chain to get inside information. They take their positions, make the info available to their customers to allow them to benefit from the info. Then it's released in rumor sites and the guys using the insider information get their quick buck.
 
Foxconn now employs 1 million people.

And Apple have things also made elsewhere to.

All it takes is one person with a smartphone to leak out some info.

I don't know how you can expect to keep it secret.

It's not like in the past when someone had to write a note and get someone to sail across the sea with it.
 
vincenz said:
Geez, you'd think everyone was talking about government trade secrets and the security of the country. :rolleyes:
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Hmm my thoughts exactly. I can understand it's Apple's intellectual property rights that are being infringed, but actually facing the sack for uttering 'K48'? That's just stupid. Apple treat their future products as if they are prototype weapons.
 
sjo said:
Where do you think lots of the leaks to sites like this come from? Don't be naive.

The "analysts" tribe people in the supply chain to get inside information. They take their positions, make the info available to their customers to allow them to benefit from the info. Then it's released in rumor sites and the guys using the insider information get their quick buck.
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True, but just because they violated a non-disclosure agreement doesn't mean they committed a crime. A NDA is a private agreement. Apple (or the supplier who signed them to the NDA) could sue them for breach of contract, but they'd have to prove damages. If someone publishes a document subject to an NDA onto a public site, they could be sued, but it is unlikely they could be charged with insider trading (since they are making that information public).

I think the criminal charges stem from the selective disclosure of insider information that could be material to the entity's stock price. Always be suspicious of "hot tips" on stocks, since often they are a sign of insider information, and it's illegal to trade on that information.

If an "analyst" or commentator truly just does speculate on potential products or developments (e.g. "I think Apple will come out with an X next quarter because all their competitors have," or "Such and such company is a prime takeover target because their stock is cheap" that's one thing. Knowing critical details, such as a specific acquisition offer or product announcement, and trading on that information is something completely different. The line gets blurry when it comes to these "expert networks." If all these "experts" are doing is trawling trade shows, public filings and press releases of known or suspected suppliers of Apple, and putting 2 and 2 together, they likely are in the clear. There is nothing wrong with compiling publicly-available information to make educated guesses. However, if they are getting people to disclose information under a NDA and sharing that information with other sources to find out about product announcements, they may have more legal issues.

If you've been tracking the insider probe in the financial press for the past few weeks, you'll know that this is a big investigation involving more companies than just Apple and the analysts who follow them.
 
merc2605 said:
Hmm my thoughts exactly. I can understand it's Apple's intellectual property rights that are being infringed, but actually facing the sack for uttering 'K48'? That's just stupid. Apple treat their future products as if they are prototype weapons.
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According to some people, the iPad torpedoed the netbook market. *shrug*
 
merc2605 said:
Hmm my thoughts exactly. I can understand it's Apple's intellectual property rights that are being infringed, but actually facing the sack for uttering 'K48'? That's just stupid. Apple treat their future products as if they are prototype weapons.
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I can see an employer firing someone for releasing private data. No matter how small it might seem, it damages trust. How would Apple (or anyone else) know that all that's been disclosed is a code name?
 
vincenz said:
Geez, you'd think everyone was talking about government trade secrets and the security of the country. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Well you could argue that dishonesty and greed in the financial industry had a nontrivial part in the development of the recent economic times. Therefore, in a way, the security of the country (and more) actually might be at stake. Sure it's not this one guy specifically but it all adds up...

Ruahrc
 
Switz213 said:
Apple Stock --> going up.
Do I really need insider info for that?
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When referring to the stock market, you can only use past tense.

Apple stock isn't "going" anywhere. Apple stock HAS gone up lately. Nobody knows for sure what will happen in the future.
 
merc2605 said:
Hmm my thoughts exactly. I can understand it's Apple's intellectual property rights that are being infringed, but actually facing the sack for uttering 'K48'? That's just stupid. Apple treat their future products as if they are prototype weapons.
Click to expand...

But this isn't about Apple at all, and not about NDAs and trade secrets. It is about giving insider information to people who use it to gain an unfair advantage on the stock market. Apple isn't the one who is damaged, it is everyone trading Apple shares on the stock market. Apple isn't after them, it is the SEC.
 
merc2605 said:
Hmm my thoughts exactly. I can understand it's Apple's intellectual property rights that are being infringed, but actually facing the sack for uttering 'K48'? That's just stupid. Apple treat their future products as if they are prototype weapons.
Click to expand...

Why is this bad? First, that was almost certainly hyperbole about being fired. Second, every company has a right to its secrets, same as every person. I suppose you think that payroll records ought to be published, too. :rolleyes:
 
As some have said, you must be crazy if you think Apple don't love/want these leaks.

If you are a company, what would you want, total silence so people may go and buy something else, or little teasers and snippets of news and info leaking out that gets everyone talking and telling everyone else about this great new device on it's way.
 
Piggie said:
If you are a company, what would you want, total silence so people may go and buy something else, or little teasers and snippets of news and info leaking out that gets everyone talking and telling everyone else about this great new device on it's way.
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I must be crazy then, because I want my competitors to be in the dark as much as possible when it comes to my strategy. Snippets and teasers might get people to hold off on competitors products, but it'll also get people to hold off on products currently being sold. If Apple came out and publicly announced that a new MBP would be available Feburary Xth 2011, people in the know wouldn't think about buying a new MBP right now (and they are still selling well).

Rumors and 'leaks' can damage a company as well. How many times have we heard that the next iPhone will be on verizon, and when it is released on ATT, everyone is upset. What about the very many smartphones being released. A vendor could go out of their way to say that their upcoming product is NOT an attempt at building an 'iPhone Killer', yet the blogs and media latch on to it, rag it for not being an iPhone, then discredit it as worthless (in some cases).
 
Cresence said:
These bozos went for peanuts.They should be in prison as much for stupidity as dishonesty.
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LOL. Well said. Even having a casual knowledge of the secrecy of Apple, one should be intelligent enough to know you don't violate those NDA's. Apple will come after and burn you. Like the others said $22K certainly wasn't worth it.

But even still, if it were millions of dollars paid for the "consult", after getting caught, all that money would be forfeited to the government. So you lose the money, your job with steady income and likely go to prison. Regardless, you lose all the way around.

Stupid is as stupid does.
 
Naivety of some posters amazing

There's a lot of naivety in some of the posts on this topic. Whether or not it is right or wrong to keep secrets, the fact is that companies compete with each other. Real people invest your pension money in the companies they think have the best prospects for earning profits, and they base their assumptions on information available about what those companies are doing, and will be doing. Other investors could include your Health Insurance company, your local government, even your employer.

In today's modern world, information is wealth, and information is power. If one person gets to know the sales figures for the current quarter before everyone else, they can decide what the true value of a company is based on the profits it can make. If the sales figures are better than expected, this might mean they buy 100,000 shares when the price is low (when people are guessing what the figures will be) and then sell them on the day of the news as the price rises; even if all they do is buy them at a cheaper price than everyone else did, they gained financially at everyone else's expense. If this price difference is just $10 a share they make a million, and your pension, health insurance, employer lose an equivalent amount.

Insider trading is bad. Stealing is bad, and just because it's intellectual information from a large company does not mean nobody gets hurt. With insider trading, it's always the little people who get hurt the most.
 
powers74 said:
You can get busted for saying K48.
Click to expand...

K48.... ROTFL. That's probably the oldest trick in the book. "Leak" a completely different super-duper-top-secret "K" number to each individual who signed an NDA. Makes it much easier, after a leak of this juicy tidbit, for the Feds to track down who to arrest.
 
Because this is so much worse then someone revealing secret government documents that put the security of the United States on the line. ;)
Yeah, real bad...
/sarcasm
 
BC2009 said:
The only thing they should nail these guys for is the iPhone Q3 sales numbers. That is definitely insider information.

Those supposed "bombshells" were well known in more detail before this guy leaked them. For heavens sake, we had rumors of front and rear cameras for the iPhone 3Gs -- whoop-dee-dooo if this guy says he heard there will be such a thing on the next iPhone. I wish somebody would have paid me $22,000 for that information (you could have gotten it by reading these rumor sites).

Regarding the whole K48 thing.... he gives nothing about a release date for it or a description of what it is (e.g.: a tablet). Hey, if anybody is willing to pay, I can confirm that Apple has at least one super-secret project going on with a three-character code name, and if you even utter the code name you could get fired. The only information this guy gives is "new class of product" and "won't have a camera". There was far better speculation on the iPad a whole 3 years prior to its release.

So while I believe folks should keep to their word and abide by their NDAs, I think the only thing you will be able to nail these guys on are the sales figures. Everything else was less substantial than speculation already in rumor-ville, and he did little to confirm or deny rumors with his vague information. Insider information is about having the upper-hand on others for trading purposes.
Click to expand...

Disagree. What part of "Non-Disclosure" is not clear? You don't get to pick and choose. Further, a revelation from an inside source with actual knowledge is much more valuable to market manipulators than rumor sites. And we have no idea of the economic impact of any such disclosures--not only stock prices but whether the info was revealed to competitors, and what damage that might have (will do).
 
merc2605 said:
Hmm my thoughts exactly. I can understand it's Apple's intellectual property rights that are being infringed, but actually facing the sack for uttering 'K48'? That's just stupid. Apple treat their future products as if they are prototype weapons.
Click to expand...

Who was it that said: "Business is War."
 
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