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(Bloomberg) — Elastic NV said it settled a two-year-old trademark lawsuit filed against Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud unit, ending a dispute that began when Amazon Web Services released a version of the smaller company’s Elasticsearch data-search product.

AWS agreed to stop using the name Elasticsearch in its project or service names, according to Elastic Chief Executive Officer Ashutosh Kulkarni. Other terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed. The software is used to search and analyze website, application and security data. 

“We view this as a significant step in removing the confusion in the marketplace because there is only one Elasticsearch, and it’s only from Elastic,” said Shay Banon, the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer.

AWS earlier this year had rebranded the product, which was based on Elastic’s open source software, as OpenSearch, but the company was still using the term Elasticsearch to refer to products from AWS, Kulkarni said.

In the lawsuit, Elastic alleged that Amazon was misleading customers with its own versions of Elastic’s software, while Amazon complained that Elastic was pulling back from the free-distribution, open-source ideals it originally espoused for its programs.

The suit was an attempt by Elastic to curb what Amazon critics, including rivals and elected officials, say are efforts by the Seattle-based company to unfairly use software provided for free under the open-source model. Elastic also drew criticism from other open-source technology vendors over the company’s decision amid the legal dispute to change its licensing system, effectively restricting major cloud providers from offering the software without a subscription.

(Updates with comments from executive in the third paragraph. An earlier version corrected the licensing restrictions in the final paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele blasted a group of U.S. Senators who requested an investigation into risks from his nation’s adoption of Bitcoin, telling them they should stop meddling in his country.

“OK boomers… You have 0 jurisdiction on a sovereign and independent nation,” Bukele said in a post on Twitter, referring to the senators. “We are not your colony, your back yard or your front yard. Stay out of our internal affairs.”

Bukele’s comments came after Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, a Democrat, and Republican Senator Jim Risch introduced legislation to require a State Department report on El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender and a plan to mitigate potential risks to the U.S. financial system.

“This new policy has the potential to weaken U.S. sanctions policy, empowering malign actors like China and organized criminal organizations,” Risch said in a statement Wednesday. 

Bukele’s government last year made Bitcoin legal tender alongside the dollar, and also announced the purchase of more than 1,000 Bitcoins with public funds, subjecting the country to the cryptocurrency’s extreme volatility. The International Monetary Fund and ratings agencies expressed concern over the policy. 

Read More: IMF Board Urges El Salvador to Ditch Bitcoin as Legal Tender

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(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden’s cryptocurrency policy rollout was delayed by a dispute between White House officials and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen over the scope of a pending executive order that could include a digital dollar, according to people familiar with the matter.

The order, intended to set a government-wide strategy for digital assets, was expected to be signed at the start of the year but the squabble between Yellen’s staff and officials on the National Economic Council slowed its progress, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Senior administration officials have now completed a draft version that is ready for Biden’s consideration, though further action could be delayed because of the Ukraine crisis.

Yellen views the plan for an executive order as unnecessary, particularly any mention of a central bank issued digital dollar, according to two of the people. The Treasury chief and her team say that the Federal Reserve, which released a report last month, are still working on the topic and should be allowed room to develop its thinking. Her team has also expressed to the White House that Treasury and federal regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, have been making progress on providing industry with more clarity on U.S. rules around virtual currencies.

Treasury spokesman John Rizzo said the account “is inaccurate,” without directly addressing Yellen’s involvement with the White House in drafting the order. “Treasury continues to work closely with our partners throughout the administration and in the White House,” he said. A White House spokesperson also said that the administration is united in its work in digital-asset policy.

Federal agencies have taken a scatter-shot approach to digital assets over the past several years and Biden’s team is facing pressure to lead on the issue. Industry executives often bemoan what they say is a lack of clarity on U.S. rules and others worry that an embrace by China and other nations of government-backed coins could threaten the dollar’s dominance.

White House officials began work on centralizing its overall strategy for cryptocurrencies in August. 

Financial regulators appointed by Biden are taking an increasingly tough stance on the crypto market as they seek to step up oversight of the asset class. Regulators have expressed concerns about the lack of investor protections and possible risks to financial stability as the market has ballooned to more than $2 trillion, including in the minutes from the Fed’s January meeting that were released Wednesday.

National security agencies across the administration are also grappling with high-profile cases of digital currencies playing a role in ransomware attacks like the Colonial Pipeline episode last year.

A late-stage draft of the executive order details economic, regulatory and national security challenges posed by cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg News reported last month. It would call for reports from various agencies due in the second half of 2022.

(Adds like to Fed minutes article. An earlier version corrected comment in the fourth paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s emergency orders aimed at cutting off funds to protesters have cast a wide net across the Canadian financial industry, forcing portfolio managers and securities firms to take a harder look at who they are doing business with. 

The new rules make demands of a broad list of entities — including banks, investment firms, credit unions, loan companies, securities dealers, fundraising platforms, insurance companies and fraternal benefit societies. They must determine whether they’re in “possession or control of property” of a person who’s attending an illegal protest or providing supplies to demonstrators, according to orders published by the government late Tuesday night. 

If they find such a person in their customer list, they must freeze their accounts and report it to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or Canada’s intelligence service, the regulations say. Any suspicious transactions must also be reported to the country’s anti-money-laundering agency, known as Fintrac. 

“I think this caught everyone off guard last night when it was released,” Greg Taylor, chief investment officer of fund manager Purpose Investments Inc., said on BNN Bloomberg Television. “There’s a lot of questions right now in figuring out who we’re targeting, what do we have to look at.”

Trudeau’s government invoked emergency powers on Monday, saying his government needed to choke off money to demonstrators who’ve blocked border crossings and have now been parked in downtown Ottawa for 20 days, refusing to leave. The protesters are demanding an end to vaccine mandates and other Covid-19 restrictions.  

The invocation of the emergency powers, which also gives the government the power to ban public assembly in some locations, has prompted fiery debate among legislators and concerns that the government is overreaching in its bid to quell protests that have paralyzed the nation’s capital. 

MORE: What Trudeau Can and Can’t Do With Emergency Powers: QuickTake

Trudeau has said the measures will be temporary, targeted and are “reasonable and proportionate” to the threats the country faces.

Caldwell Securities, an investment-advisory firm that operates in Ontario, hasn’t received any communication from the government or law enforcement, nor a list of people whose accounts it’s supposed to freeze, Chairman Thomas Caldwell said Wednesday.

Caldwell said he doesn’t know how exactly his firm would go about enforcing the measures and he would seek outside legal advice before making any such move. The emergency rules are “posturing” on the part of the government, meant to frighten protesters enough to clear the current demonstrations, he said. 

“If this thing is to be implemented, it will begin and end at the banking level,” Caldwell said in an interview. “I can’t see it getting down to our level. I would be quite surprised.”

The new regulations say the act doesn’t apply to insurance policies and that people who suffer injury or damage as a result of the order may apply for compensation. The order also gives the government the power to designate certain areas as “secure protected places, including critical infrastructure.”

Financial institutions will be protected against lawsuits for actions they take under the emergency order, the government says. 

The order also says governments have the authority to “share relevant information with banks and other financial services providers, if the information will help put a stop to the funding of illegal blockades and illegal activities.” That applies not just to the federal government but provinces and territories, according to a statement from the finance department. 

The new regulations apply to platforms that raise funds or virtual currency through donations, as well as payment and clearing services — whether dealing in regular currency or cryptocurrency. 

“The censorship of money is something we see in an authoritarian country, not one like Canada,” said Philippe Jette, senior consultant to the Rivemont Crypto Fund. “Regardless of my views on the protests, freezing accounts for political reasons is a big, big slippery slope.”

(Updates with comments)

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(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. investors should vote against the $99 million pay package awarded last year to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, a shareholder adviser firm recommends.  

Half of Cook’s 2021 award is time-based and doesn’t depend on satisfying performance criteria such as increases in Apple’s share price, Rockville, Maryland-based Institutional Shareholder Services said in a report. Moreover, even if Cook, 61, were to retire, the award would continue to vest, ISS said in urging shareholders to oppose the pay package at the company’s annual meeting on March 4.

“There are significant concerns regarding the design and magnitude of the equity award made to CEO Cook,” ISS said in the report. 

A spokesperson for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment on the ISS report. 

The bulk of a corporate executive’s pay is often in the form of stock or options, and often comes with restrictions or performance criteria designed to give incentives to remain at the company. Last year, Cook received stock awards valued at $82 million at the time, as well as a $12 million cash bonus, a $3 million salary and other compensation.

It was the first pay package that Cook received after collecting a $750 million moonshot award that Apple gave him after taking over from Steve Jobs 10 years ago. Cook defied some critics who anticipated that Apple’s star would fade in the post-Jobs era. Since 2011, Apple’s total shareholder return has exceeded 1,000%, raising the company’s market value to $2.8 trillion. 

Read more: Apple CEO Poised to Get $750 Million Final Payout From Award 

Apple disclosed how much it paid Cook in a filing last month and will now put the compensation to a non-binding vote. Cook’s  2021 package included new equity awards that could provide him with as many as 1 million shares by 2025.

Apple has already granted Cook a pay package for 2022. In September, he was given an award of restricted stock that could potentially amount to more than 750,000 shares. 

Apple shareholders have been supportive of Cook and other executives’ pay in the past. At the 2021 annual meeting, 95% of votes cast backed its executive compensation program.

The Financial Times reported on ISS’s recommendation earlier Wednesday. 

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(Bloomberg) — A cyberattack aimed at paralyzing banks and government websites was the worst of its kind in Ukrainian history, officials in Kyiv said, as the standoff with Russia continues to draw warnings of a potential invasion.  

The DDoS, or distributed denial-of-service, attack began Tuesday and continued into Wednesday with the goal of causing mass confusion, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, said during an online briefing. 

“This attack was unprecedented, it was prepared well in advance, and its key goal was destabilization, sowing panic and creating chaos in our country,” he said. 

The Defense Ministry’s website and Dia, a government service that lets people access digital versions of their passports and Covid vaccination certificates, were among the targets. Cash machine networks and mobile banking services of top lenders Oshchadbank and Privatbank also came under pressure.

Mandiant Executive Cautions Against Russia-Cyberattack Panic 

The size and resources involved suggest “a country” was behind the attack, according to Viktor Zhora, the deputy head of the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection. 

He didn’t name the country, citing an ongoing investigation. In the past, Ukraine’s Security Service has said hacking groups linked to Russian intelligence services may have been responsible for similar attacks, allegations Moscow has denied.

Kyiv’s western allies say Russia has massed as many as 150,000 troops on its neighbor’s borders in a possible precursor to an attack and are voicing reservations about announcements from the Kremlin that it is withdrawing some forces. Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and supports separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, says it has no plans to invade.

The attack was “purely psychological,” as it sought to prevent people from accessing services and didn’t appear to steal any money or information, Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council Serhii Demedyuk said.  

While Ukrainians are increasingly reliant on using mobile banking and digitalized government services, they are also accustomed to interruptions from hackers. 

In 2015, a cyberattack cut electricity to 200,000 customers, while another a year later temporarily knocked out a power station in northern Kyiv. Those attacks were carried out with involvement from Russia’s GRU intelligence agency, according to charges the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed in 2020. 

This year, hackers defaced Ukrainian government websites in January, broadcasting a message that falsely claimed to have stolen private data from citizens. 

Russia “had nothing to do” with this week’s cyberattack in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He described as “inaccurate” assertions from NATO that a pullback of Russian troops from near Ukraine’s border is not taking place. 

Digital Harassment

DDoS attacks are a common method of digital harassment, a technique that attackers have used to overwhelm targets with web traffic for a generation. By directing a network of hacked computers to visit a single site, for instance, cyber actors use DDoS attacks to send political messages, or to intimidate a specific organization. DDoS stands for distributed denial of service.

In 2008, for instance, the hacktivist group Anonymous took credit for a DDoS attack that temporarily knocked offline the websites for the Church of Scientology. An attack in 2016 against the internet infrastructure provider Dyn Inc. resulted in cascading outages at internet giants Twitter Inc., Spotify AG and the New York Times. 

The typical goal of a DDoS attack is to take a website offline or to disrupt service. Hackers will sometimes DDoS a target and demand a ransom to stop the attack.

Security firms have become increasingly adept at fending off such incidents in the years since, though observers have warned that attackers have sought new methods of creating disruptions. 

Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Kentik Inc.m said that the DDoS incident in Ukraine wasn’t particularly special.

“DDoS attacks happen every day,” Madory said. “Maybe the only thing interesting about yesterday’s attacks was the context that they occurred in.” Madory said Kentik observed the DDoS attacks and saw Privatbank activating DDoS protection from a Ukrainian security vendor.

“If the Ukraine-Russia conflict just consists of DDoS attacks against banks and the website of the UA army, that’s probably the best-case scenario as compared to armed conflict,” Madory said.

(Updates with additional background on DDoS attacks beginning in 13th paragraph. A previous version of this story incorrectly described it as the worst cyberattack in Ukrainian history.)

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(Bloomberg) — Shopify Inc. plunged 17% in Toronto, the most ever, after giving a weaker outlook for growth this year, as online spending resets and consumers face higher inflation. 

“The Covid-triggered acceleration of ecommerce that spilled into the first half of 2021 in the form of lockdowns and government stimulus will be absent from 2022,” the Canadian e-commerce firm said in a statement on Wednesday. “There is caution around inflation and consumer spend near term, for the full year.”

As a result, Shopify said full year revenue growth will be lower than the 57% increase in 2021. The Canadian-traded shares fell as much as 19.3%. The company has lost nearly C$100 billion ($78.8 billion) in market value since the start of the year. 

Shopify, which provides software and other services that underpin the websites of many small businesses, grew dramatically during the early stages of the pandemic, with sales jumping 86% in 2020. Investors, however, fear the company can’t sustain its growth as shoppers return to more normal buying patterns. Those concerns intensified last month when Shopify said it had terminated contracts with several warehouse and fulfillment partners, sending shares to a 16-month low. 

But for the fourth quarter, Shopify beat analysts estimates for revenue and profit.

Revenue increased 41% to $1.38 billion. Analysts, on average, projected $1.34 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit, excluding some items, was $1.36 a share, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $1.26. 

Gross merchandise volume, the value of merchants sales flowing through Shopify’s platform, increased 32% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier to $54.1 billion. Analysts, on average, estimated $52.6 billion. 

The company’s successful fourth quarter follows a rocky previous period, when the company’s results failed to meet analysts’ estimates for the first time since Shopify went public in 2015. At the time, Shopify cited supply chain issues and rising inflation for the disappointing results. 

In its outlook for this year, Shopify also said new contract terms with apps and theme developers that would cause a “headwind” to revenue from its store subscription plans in the first half.

(Updates with closing share price, market cap loss)

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(Bloomberg) — Roblox Corp. shares tumbled the most ever on Wednesday after the video game platform reported bookings that missed analysts’ estimates in the fourth quarter, reflecting a retreat from the pandemic-inspired boost over the last two years.

“As parts of the world began to return to a more normal way of life, our absolute numbers have continued to grow,” Chief Executive Officer David Baszucki said, but “growth rates have declined as we are comparing, in some cases, to quarters last year in which certain key metrics doubled or even nearly tripled.” 

The stock plunged 27% to $53.87 in New York. 

Bookings, which include revenue and deferred revenue and other adjustments, rose 20% from a year earlier to $770.1 million, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Analysts were estimating $786.2 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 

Average daily active users increased 33% to 49.5 million, slightly less than the 50.5 million analysts were expecting. Much of that growth comes from countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe. And, in a shift, more than half of Roblox’s user base is now over age 13.

The results mark Roblox’s first full-year report since it went public in March 2021. Baszucki acknowledged that over the course of two years of the pandemic, “our numbers have been affected in several ways,” but he urged investors to “take the long view.” 

The gaming industry had a banner year in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Roblox, a social platform that enables players to create their own online games and worlds, captured the undivided attention of as much as two-thirds of U.S. kids ages 9 to12. That success also made the company vulnerable when tweens were called back to classrooms, sports and other activities.

As the pandemic fades, Roblox is looking to the future in the metaverse, envisioned as an immersive version of the internet where people will be able to interact, play games or work using a digital avatar. While many companies are touting the benefits and growth potential of the metaverse, Roblox has a head start because its users are already able to make their own video games and virtual worlds using its technology. In 2021, users spent more than 1 million hours inside 1,900 of its “experiences,” the company said. 

At the same time, Meta Platforms Inc. recently experienced a harsh reality check after announcing a full-force push into the metaverse. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Amine Bensaid said the two companies “have completely different business goals. I don’t think any company is better-positioned than Roblox on the vision many have on the metaverse.” 

Roblox Chief Business Officer Craig Donato said that the fallout of Meta’s metaverse push has given Roblox “no second thoughts. We’re very, very consistent on where we want to go. I think more and more time will be spent in these digital spaces.” Donato said the company sees the metaverse as a “long-term trend we need to work on and we’ve been working on it for 15 years.” He added that it’s a matter of “if, not when” the company integrates blockchain technology. 

The ability to operate across platforms is key to traditional definitions for the metaverse, and right now, Roblox is accessible only on PC, mobile devices and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox One console. In an interview, Donato said the company is “actively looking at all platforms but we wouldn’t announce anything we’re working on until we’re demoing it live.”

Roblox’s shares surged 130% last year, but were down 29% this year through Tuesday’s close. Matthew Ball, managing partner of venture capital firm Epyllion Co., said Roblox’s ebb and flow is in line with other metaverse-themed equities, like game-tech company Unity Software Inc. Ball expects Roblox to continue to grow.

“It has the most powerful flywheel in gaming today, and there are billions yet to join socially focused virtual worlds,” he said. “There are likely to be hitches along the way, and Roblox may end up replaced by a newer competitor, but right now Roblox looks like the virtual world platform of the West.”

One of those hitches bas been content moderation. Over 2021, several investigations by news outlets described an epidemic of inappropriate content on the platform, including sex clubs and fascist or white supremacist role-play. In November, when Roblox introduced a new spatial voice feature, The Washington Post reported that users made lewd noises and said slurs. To participate, users were asked to prove they were over 13 with a photo and government ID.

Roblox employs human moderators, about 80% of whom are outsourced, and sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to review content. Baszucki implied that some headlines around inappropriate content in Roblox were exaggerated, telling Bloomberg that “we’re constantly improving AI and filtering and we’re optimistic about the direction we’re going in.” He added that Roblox has a “zero tolerance policy” on content that violates the platform’s guidelines.

(Updates with closing shares.)

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(Bloomberg) — The crypto world continues to be in the spotlight this week, with the Federal Reserve reiterating a warning of potential economic risks just days after digital-asset firms dominated the advertisements during the Super Bowl. 

“Some participants saw emerging risks to financial stability associated with the rapid growth in crypto-assets and decentralized finance platforms,” minutes from the Fed’s January meeting showed when released Wednesday.  

Digital assets’ market value has risen exponentially over the last decade, the memo noted. It currently stands at around $1.9 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Additionally, Fed staff expressed concern about the cryptocurrencies’ infamous volatility, including the “sizable declines since late last year.” Cryptocurrencies were last mentioned by the committee in a July release.

The Fed wasn’t the only critic of crypto this week. Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown at a hearing Tuesday condemned the Super Bowl promotions, saying they failed to warn investors of the potential risks of putting money into the white-hot asset class.

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(Bloomberg) — Applied Materials Inc., the biggest maker of machinery used to manufacture semiconductors, climbed in late trading after topping earnings estimates last quarter despite supply challenges.

First-quarter profit rose to $1.89 a share in the period, excluding some items, the company said Wednesday. That compared with an average estimate of $1.85. Sales climbed 21% to $6.27 billion, also ahead of estimates. 

The shares gained as much as 4.3% to $146.99 in extended trading after the results were released. The stock had lost 10% this year through the close, part of a broader slide by semiconductor-industry shares.

The chip industry is desperate for more of Applied Materials’ equipment to cope with booming demand for electronics. But semiconductor-making machinery is complex and requires its own chips to control vital functions. That’s made it hard for the company to produce enough gear to fill its orders. 

The supply woes will persist in the current quarter. The company expects sales of about $6.35 billion in the fiscal second quarter, which ends in April. Analysts were projecting $6.43 billion on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit will be $1.75 to $2.05 a share, minus certain items. That compares with an average prediction of $1.96.

Applied Materials’ customers include Samsung Electronics Co., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Intel Corp., making its projections a window into the spending plans and confidence levels of some of the biggest companies in technology.

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