🔴 Live Nation facing DOJ lawsuit and massive data breach

Today’s market performance 🏆️ 

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Dow 30: -0.30% 📉
Russell 2000: -0.50% 📉

TOP STORY
🔴 Live Nation facing DOJ lawsuit and massive data breach

Let’s get this party started at the beginning:

On May 20, Live Nation discovered unauthorized access to Ticketmaster data, prompting the company to hire top forensic investigators to find out what the hell had happened.

A couple of days later, while the investigation is still going on, the Department of Justice (DOJ) decides it’s the perfect time to rub salt in the wounds of Live Nation by suing them and Ticketmaster for illegally using their “monopoly” to dominate the ticketing business, crush competition, and drive up prices.

Damn, the DOJ really is a cold-hearted beast.

So, at this point, Live Nation is dealing with a massive lawsuit and a data breach to investigate.

Did they at least figure out what happened?

Yes, on May 27, the hacker group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach, which contained the names, addresses, phone numbers, and credit card details of ~560 million users.

The group then tried to sell the stolen database for around $500,000 on the black market.

That price tag honestly seems like a steal to us, haha; get it?

Live Nation was subsequently forced to confirm the data breach in a regulatory filing late last week and is still working with law enforcement to retrieve the data. 

But don’t worry, folks, there is good news. 

Live Nation believes the breach “does not have a material impact on our overall business operations or on our financial condition or results of operations.”

So, while you may be a victim of identity theft, the company will be just fine. Phew 😅 

SPACE EXPLORATION
🛰️ Japanese billionaire has to reschedule SpaceX flight to the moon

For the past 5+ years, Yusaku Maezawa had been planning to take eight artists on a flight, dearMoon, which was destined to take the crew around the Moon aboard SpaceX’s Starship. 

Unfortunately, though, the mission keeps getting delayed, and it looks like it is being canceled altogether.

Some background on the Starship:

• Starship is one of SpaceX's most promising spacecraft, a next-gen vehicle designed for deep space missions like going to the Moon and even Mars.

• The long-term goal for Starship is to eventually make space travel accessible to everyone, hence Maezawa’s mission.

• The mission included DJ Steve Aoki, filmmaker Brendan Hall, musician Choi Seung Hyun, and YouTuber Tim Dodd.

But while it has the potential to help us live on another planet in the future, Starship is still very much in development.

The Moon flight was most recently delayed indefinitely in November, just before Starship’s second flight test, which exploded shortly after launch.

SpaceX is planning its fourth flight test for June 5th, further emphasizing that the ship is still very much in the early stages of development.

Maezawa really had no choice but to cancel this awesome once-in-a-lifetime trip.

And by the way, Mr. Maezawa had to have seen this outcome as a possibility; it’s not the first time Musk has exaggerated his product's progress.

We still love you, though, Elon, and we can’t wait for you to bring us all to Mars.

COMMODITIES
🍊 We might be facing "Orange-mageddon”

A global orange shortage has sent orange prices soaring, so much so that some orange juice manufacturers are even considering using other fruits to produce OJ.

Come on, it can’t be that bad. Can it?

Well, Orange prices reached $3.68 per pound in April, a 33% increase from $2.76 a year ago and a 210% rise since January 2021.

And Orange Juice Prices are just as bad, maybe even worse. 

The next orange juice price target is estimated to be $5.16 per pound, and a 12-ounce can of frozen concentrate is now $4.25, up 41% from a year ago.

Yikes, how did this happen?

There are a few reasons:

• Weather, disease, and other environmental factors cause immense damage to the orange harvests in Florida and Brazil, two of the world's largest orange producers.

• Florida, the biggest U.S. producer, and Brazil, which accounts for 70% of global production, are both facing smaller harvests due to disease and extreme weather.

Brazil's orange trees are being afflicted by citrus greening, a disease that causes citrus trees to produce bitter, misshapen fruit and eventually die.

Brazil is set to produce 232.4 million boxes of oranges in the 2024-2025 season, which, while it may seem like a lot, represents a 24% decline compared to the previous one-year cycle.

And while Brazil has been hit really hard, Florida’s situation is likely worse.

Florida's production has been impacted mostly by its infamous hurricanes as well as the same greening disease that kills Orange Trees in Brazil.

But in Florida, the numbers are absolutely horrendous.

The production of oranges in Florida has declined drastically from 220 million boxes in 2004 to a measly (projected) 16 million boxes for the current year, which would be the smallest harvest since the 1930s.

This is serious, people; we might have to start rationing the orange smiles and Tropicana; it definitely ain’t gonna be the most fruitful summer.