San Francisco - The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the motive behind a false report on CNN's citizen journalist website Friday that Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack.

The report sent the company's stock on a roller coaster ride. Shares fell 5.4 per cent Friday morning after the posting on iReport.com cited an anonymous source who said Jobs was rushed to the hospital after suffering a "major heart attack."

The report followed months of concern about the health of the iconic company founder and CEO who had surgery four years ago to treat pancreatic cancer.

London, Aug 29 : An obituary of Apple founder Steve Jobs has been mistakenly published by the Bloomberg business news wire.

The obit, describing Steve Jobs as the man who ‘refashioned the mobile phone’ was published "momentarily" after a routine update by a reporter, and was "immediately deleted".

The 2,500-word piece contained blank spaces for Jobs’ age and cause of death to be inserted.

In the opening sentence Jobs was described as the man who “helped make personal computers as easy to use as telephones, changed the way animated films are made, persuaded consumers to tune into digital music and refashioned the mobile phone.”

San Francisco  - Forget the oil crisis, the dollar swoon or the housing bust. The biggest worry for many in the technology and investment community is the health of Apple's iconic founder and chief executive Steve Jobs.

The 53-year-old legend underwent successful surgery for pancreatic cancer about four years ago, and rumours of a relapse started swirling last month when he looked gaunt, pale and far from his usual exuberant self when introducing the new iPhone in San Francisco.