Nicholas Ciarelli / The Daily Beast:
Not So Secret Apple  —  Welcome to The Daily Beast: A Q&A with Tina Brown  —  The company's former (13-year-old) nemesis explains how Steve Jobs has suddenly gone soft.  —  I've had the dubious privilege of being on the frontlines of Apple's war against web leaks.

Earlier today we published a list of 50+ projects that AOL has killed or is planning to kill. Some of those items had already been made public, but as far as we can tell, much of it hadn't been discussed outside of AOL. Definitely not discussed outside of AOL: Anything to do with Magnify.net, which showed up on the closed-or-about-to-be list.

Magnify.net CEO Steve Rosenbaum contacted us immediately to assure us that his company wasn't dead or about to be, which makes sense to us: As best we could figure, the fact that the company's name showed up on AOL's hit list meant that AOL was cutting off support for its product in some way. But Steve says that's not the case, either. We've asked AOL for clarification, but haven't heard back. In the meantime, here's Steve's statement:

You can imagine our surprise - since AOL doesn't own us, or even have a stake, or - as best as we can tell - support us as a 3rd party app.

So, they can't really shut us down. In fact, we're having a pretty great year, with 35,000 sites now using our service to search and embed videos. We've just landed new financing, and we've got cashflow break even pegged for 2009.

So, the reports of our demise are wildly premature. Now we know how Steve Jobs felt last week.

ps. Our best guess is that AOL had at some point a project called 'magnify' someone got confused and added the .net on the end - but it's not us.

See Also: AOL's Hit List: 50+ Projects Gone Or Going

Apple’s stock drop on the false report that CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack was unwarranted since the company can carry on just fine even without its legendary leader and co-founder, Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research, says.

As of 12:55PM ET, Apple (AAPL) is down 8% and trading around $89, more than 50% off its high.

The stock's trailing P/E ratio is now 17X--still above the market's, but low for a stock with this wide and passionate a following and a still-solid growth story. Thanks to the iPhone's attractive cash-flow characteristics, moreover, the stock is now trading at just over 10X trailing free cash flow after factoring out the company's cash balance.

A few weeks ago, when we noted that Apple's stock had fallen 33% off its high, we suggested that, if market conditions deteriorated further, the stock could drop to $70. It obviously still could. In the old days, 10X-15X was considered a reasonable P/E multiple for a hardware manufacturing firm, even one as sexy as this.

Apple is also obviously exposed to the global slowdown, and its earnings will likely get hammered over the next year. Also, as illustrated by the market's temporary panic over a Steve Jobs heart attack report, the company needs a succession plan.

But that said... most of what people about Apple when the stock was $180 still holds true. As Warren Buffett has said many times, the best time to buy stocks is when others are fearful. Apple investors, like other stock-market investors, and close to panic right now.

See Also:
Apple Denies Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report
Apple Announces 33% Off Sale!
Microsoft's Real Problem: The Second Coming of Apple

The SEC is investigating the false report that Steve Jobs had a heart attack to determine if it was an attempt to influence stock prices. CNN is cooperating by handing over the relevant user data.

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It's been a week of stark contrasts. A privately funded rocket made it into space, while stock market funds crashed to earth. Apple's grip on App Store developers and Hollywood's stranglehold on DVDs both slipped, while former politicos and spies eased quietly into the social networking space. Also: Steve Ballmer went on a speaking tour, adding to the supply of fear, uncertainly, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Are you truly in the know? Take our quiz and find out. Correct answers are worth 10 points. Now take a deep breath and dive in.

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Hillarant. Via l’excellent Geek and Poke

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