On Friday, N.D. Cal. Federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez issued an order in the high-profile Epic Games v. Apple App Store tilt, finding that Apple “violated California’s laws against unfair competition by barring app developers...more
9/14/2021
/ Amazon ,
App Developers ,
Apple ,
Bank of America ,
Car Dealerships ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Financial Markets ,
Hertz ,
Mergers ,
Semiconductors ,
Unfair Competition
We thought that more regulatory action was in the offing for Wells Fargo, and the OCC definitely delivered, hitting Wells on Thursday with an additional $250 million fine for “unsatisfactory remedial progress” in addressing...more
9/10/2021
/ Amazon ,
Biden Administration ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Markets ,
Fines ,
Ford Motor ,
OCC ,
OSHA ,
Ponzi Scheme ,
Wells Fargo
Coinbase, the “largest cryptocurrency exchange” in the U.S., revealed on Wednesday that SEC officials are threatening to sue it “over a proposed financial product that would let customers earn interest on digital asset...more
9/10/2021
/ Bitcoin ,
Bonds ,
Coinbase ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Cryptocurrency ,
El Salvador ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Markets ,
Fraud ,
Mergers ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Ford Motors has hired a new senior exec in an effort to further the company’s push into e-vehicles. Doug Field formerly ran Apple’s “secretive car project,” and his “departure could be a blow to Apple’s auto ambitions, which...more
9/8/2021
/ Automotive Industry ,
Bitcoin ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
El Salvador ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Financial Markets ,
Ford Motor ,
PayPal ,
Price Inflation ,
Startups ,
T-Mobile ,
Toyota ,
Unemployment Benefits
Welcome to B-Day, the beginning of the grand cryptocurrency experiment for El Salvador, which “became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender on Tuesday.” Predictably, “the launch got off to a bumpy...more
A New York federal bankruptcy judge provisionally approved an opioid settlement plan on Wednesday that will dissolve Purdue Pharma and require members of the Sackler family (which owns Purdue) to “turn over billions of their...more
9/2/2021
/ Amazon ,
Apple ,
Biden Administration ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Monopolization ,
NHTSA ,
Opioid ,
Payday Loans ,
Purdue Pharma ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Tariffs ,
Tesla
Dispatch #1 from the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos criminal fraud trial, which opened yesterday with jury selection and saw the excusing of 9 of the initial batch of about 50 potential jurors for lack of vaccination...more
9/1/2021
/ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Fraud ,
Google ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Jury Selection ,
OCC ,
Oil & Gas ,
Private Equity ,
Surface Transportation Board ,
UK Brexit ,
Wells Fargo
Forget Big Brother and meet Big Parent, as Beijing released new strict limits “on how long minors can play online video games” on Monday. The rules, which bar kids and teens from online gaming on school days and limit them to...more
8/31/2021
/ China ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Jury Selection ,
NLRB ,
Online Gaming ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Starbucks ,
Unions ,
Video Games ,
Zoom®
The Wall Street Journal delivered quite the scoop last week, sitting down (virtually, at least) with John Binns, the 21-year-old American expat who claims to be behind the massive T-Mobile data breach that compromised the...more
As we anticipated, Fed Chair Powell—appearing virtually at the annual Jackson Hole gathering of Fed officials and watchers—signaled the possibility of central bank bond-purchase tapering as early as this year. More notable,...more
Apple reached a settlement this week with a group of app developers that will allow them to “urge customers to pay them outside their iPhone apps”—a move that enables them to “avoid paying Apple a commission on their sales”...more
While not mandating vaccines for its employees, Delta Airlines announced on Wednesday that it would begin charging unvaxxed workers enrolled in its healthcare program a monthly $200 surcharge, require Covid testing, and...more
8/26/2021
/ Asset Management ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Delta Airlines ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Facebook ,
Fashion Industry ,
Financial Markets ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Rental Assistance Programs ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Vaccinations
Trendy eyewear-maker (and Daily Dose fave) Warby Parker revealed plans on Tuesday to go public via direct listing—the latest in a series of companies in recent months to sidestep the traditional IPO process in favor of the...more
8/25/2021
/ Direct Listing ,
Disney ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Goldman Sachs ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Pensions ,
Spotify ,
TikTok ,
Unions ,
Vaccinations
Markets used news of the FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine as the excuse they needed to jump back up after a few days of losses. All three major indices were up near the 1% range, with the Nasdaq...more
A California state court judge dealt Uber, Lyft, and the rest of gig-economy employers a blow on Friday, ruling that the recent Prop. 22-driven state law “that ensures many gig workers are considered independent contractors,...more
The Federal Trade Commission refiled its antitrust lawsuit against Facebook on Thursday 2 months after a federal judge dismissed the agency’s original case. The updated action repeated many of the same allegations against...more
8/20/2021
/ Amazon ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Brick-and-Mortar Stores ,
CFTC ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
E-Commerce ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Johnson & Johnson ,
Toyota
T-Mobile, the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier, has now confirmed that the cyberattack we reported earlier this week did indeed expose the personal information of some 48 million people—some of it including social...more
Bill Ackman and his Pershing Square SPAC were on the receiving end of a “novel” lawsuit on Tuesday “that could have far-reaching implications for the SPAC industry.” The action argues that Ackman’s SPAC “isn’t an operating...more
Facing pressure from Congress and a groundswell of complaints by parents, many of the biggest technology companies are taking belated action to improve privacy protections for their teenage users. Though the Children’s Online...more
8/18/2021
/ Big Tech ,
COPPA ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Facebook ,
Google ,
Online Advertisements ,
TikTok ,
YouTube
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on Monday that it’s opening a probe into Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assistance system “because of growing concerns that it can fail to see parked emergency vehicles.”...more
Hyatt Hotels revealed plans this weekend to buy resort company Apple Leisure Group from PE owners KKR and KSL Capital Partners for a reported $2.7 billion. The move is “the latest sign of optimism about a return to vacation...more
8/16/2021
/ Apple ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Markets ,
FinTech ,
Google ,
Huawei ,
Institutional Investors ,
International Trade Commission (ITC) ,
NASA ,
Patent Infringement ,
Startups
While the Delta variant threatens Disney’s big theme park reopenings (and its recent return to profit in that sector after a year in the red), Big Mouse’s streaming service continues to deliver. Disney+ wrapped its fiscal Q3...more
That CPI data we were expecting yesterday hit analysts’ projections just about on the mark, with prices increasing 5.4% last month compared to a year earlier. Though undeniably high, that figure suggests that “gains are...more
As expected but slightly hard to believe given where things stood just months ago, the U.S. Senate managed to pass a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Tuesday, with 19 Republicans joining Democrats in approving...more
New figures coinciding with last week’s banner jobs report showed that employers “once again posted a record number of job openings in June,” (some 10.1 million, up from 9.5 million in May), but they also saw companies making...more