⏱A $500M mistake
Selz sells, and Bitcoin breaches
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the hump day! Thanks for spending your morning with us!
0:05- Sometimes a “my bad” doesn’t cover it
And in this case, it definitely doesn’t. Yesterday a judge denied Citigroup’s request to recover roughly $500M after it accidentally paid $985M out of pocket to lenders early instead of making simple interest payments. Some of the lenders returned a combined $385M, but Revlon, Citigroup’s largest loan agent, decided to keep the cash. Naturally Citigroup filed a lawsuit stating that it was simply a “human error”, but the judge stated that Revlon was justified in believing that the payment was intentional despite Citi making “one of the biggest blunders in banking history.”
0:29- Bitcoin boldly breaches a barrier
Yesterday morning Bitcoin broke through the $50k barrier, reaching a new all-time high of $50,584. That increase meant that Bitcoin had appreciated 74% YTD, and the market cap was briefly over $940Bn. Brian Melville, head of strategy at Cumberland, explained the situation through simple supply and demand, and said that one of the most important metrics to watch was the amount of new bitcoin holders entering the space, a number that has skyrocketed over the last six months.
0:50- Selz sells to Amazon
Amazon announced yesterday that it had completed its acquisition of Selz, the Australian eCommerce giant similar to Shopify in the US. Selz, who provides small and medium businesses with an online storefront, has less than 50 employees, but has seen tremendous growth in the last two years. It appears that Amazon’s main goal for the purchase is to fight off Shopify, who actually beat them in third party Black Friday sales, $5.1Bn to $4.8Bn in 2020.
1:11- Training wheels for the internet
Microsoft calmed the fears of parents everywhere yesterday when they announced Kids Mode for their edge browser. This browser mode will help parents to limit the internet access for their kids by locking safesearch on, providing an easy way to block sites, and including kid friendly browser themes and articles.
1:24- Death, Taxes, and Beer
Over the last week archaeologists in Europe have been uncovering the remains of what is believed to be a 5,000 year old mega brewery that’s being called “the world’s largest beer factory.” Experts believe it was capable of producing thousands of gallons of beer in a single batch.
Have a great rest of your day, and we’ll see you tomorrow bright and early!
-The 90 Second News Team
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