In what may go down in history as the greatest printer’s error of all time, Google suffered a rapid $22 billion fall in its share value following an accidental email transmission from its printers. The company’s third-quarter results were prematurely filed with regulators and made available to news wires. In place of an opening comment from CEO Larry Page was a placeholder that read “Quote from Larry to go here.”
The results released on the day that Google released pictures of its shiny and colourful data centres, showed that the company’s performance had failed to match analysts; expectations – despite recording a 19 per cent increase in revenue.
Google blamed financial printing company RR Donnelley for the disastrous gaffe.
In what may turn out to be the greatest understatement since Lance Armstrong said he was just popping out to the chemists, a spokesman for Donnelley said: “We are fully engaged in an investigation to determine how this event took place.”