Financial Daily Dose 5.11.2021 | Top Story: FBI Identifies Hackers Behind Pipeline Attack

More details on that massive ransomware hack that hit Colonial Pipeline over the weekend. The FBI has confirmed that hacking group DarkSide was responsible and that it’s “looking for any ties the group might have to nation-states.” In the meantime, the White House announced that it convened emergency weekend meetings to mitigate any impact the hack had on the U.S. fuel supply - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and Law360 and Marketplace

State prosecutors are joining the growing chorus of politicians and other officials calling on Facebook to “halt plans to create a version of Instagram for young children, citing concerns over mental and emotional well-being, exposure to online predators and cyberbullying” - NYTimes and WSJ and Law360

The Treasury Department is preparing to unlock some $350 billion of federal funds for states and local governments, “laying out rules to ensure the money quickly flows toward Covid-19 relief and other programs that will support the economy”—the latest outflow from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed into law in March - Bloomberg and WSJ and NYTimes

L Brands has reportedly “decided to spinoff Victoria’s Secret rather than sell it,” after talks with several private equity firms didn’t pan out. The company’s hoping for a $5-7 billion valuation for Victoria’s Secret - NYTimes

Chipotle is increasing its wages to an average of $15/hour in an effort to fill the more-than 20,000 openings it has for the upcoming peak season and the “200 restaurants it plans to open this year” - NYTimes and MarketWatch

The product may be new—cryptos, in this case—but the Wall Street strategies (think “price arbitrage, futures trading, options writing) are tried and true – Bloomberg

A preliminary NTSB report over the fatal April crash of a Tesla Model S in Texas is raising doubts that Autopilot was involved, as first suspected due to the lack of anyone in the driver’s seat - WSJ and MarketWatch and TechCrunch

Vice Media is hoping that its proposed SPAC deal will help deliver the company a valuation in the neighborhood of $3 billion  - WSJ and Bloomberg

Malaysia’s troubled 1MDB state investment fund has sued Deutsche Bank and Citigroup (among others) in an effort to “recover assets worth more than $23 billion embezzled from” the fund – Law360

Two months after Teen Vogue found itself in the middle of a wave of controversy after the decade-old tweets of newly named EIC Alexi McCammond surfaced, the publication is trying again, naming NowThis managing editor Versha Sharma as its next editor-in-chief - NYTimes

Australian company Australian Leather has lost another battle in its “long-shot bid to scrap a U.S. trademark on the word ‘Ugg’” by American owner of the brand, Deckers Outdoor. So what gives? Well, down under, “ugg” is “used as a catchall term for sheepskin boots with fleece that have been made since the 1930s,” prompting Australian Leather to compare it to “champagne” and “feta” cheese. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit disagreed, affirming a 2019 N.D. Ill. decision in favor of Deckers - NYTimes

Bloomberg attempts to get behind the scenes—well, as far behind as the secretive Swiss will let it—at Banque Pictet & Cie, the 215-year-old haven for the very, very rich. After more than 2 centuries of a “concierge-like approach,” the bank is at a crossroads, trying to navigate presenting itself “as modern, but not too much” - Bloomberg

Stay safe and get vaxxed,
MDR