F5 Live: Refreshing Technology (Audio)

This week, Malwarebytes is hit by malware, Valve is hit with a giant fine, and AT&T TV Now's hits finally knocked it out.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Near the end of 2020, a massive hack was uncovered in the network management system, SolarWinds. The attack came from a Russian state-sponsored organization, named Cozy Bear, and was administered via a compromised update. Through this update process, Cozy Bear was about to distribute code allowing them backdoor access to the systems of those who installed it. We recognized at the time that the full implications of the attack were unknown, though we did learn some of the many companies and organizations affected. Malwarebytes was not one of those companies, but Microsoft was. However, Malwarebytes has announced that it was breached by Cozy Bear as well.

Valve, through its Steam Store, and five major PC game publishers - Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media, and ZeniMax - have been fined by the European Commission for anticompetitive behavior. The total fine is €7.8 million (or about $9.5 million) and revolves around pricing and game availability within the European Union.

For many years, Google has had a complicated relationship with data access. The company generally believes that all data should be available to them in order to present the most complete search results. However, they have also gotten directly involved in the content aggregation and display space, often taking content from other companies and displaying it without ever requiring the user to visit the site from which the data came. Without that visit to the site, the companies cannot generate revenue, meaning creating the content is less valuable.

Since AT&T purchased DirecTV, they have made a lot of questionable decisions. The struggles have been so severe that AT&T is already considering selling the brand. However, one of the more disastrous decisions for the DirecTV brand has got to be the streaming cable service, DirecTV Now. Now, the company is shuttering the service and moving customers to its own competitor, AT&T TV.

This week, the Tech Podcasts Network team discusses what's coming up and what we're all most excited about for CES 2021.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

This week, App Fairness is expanding its ranks, Russia is expanding its outlook, and HBO Max is expanding its reach. Plus, ways to prepare for 2021.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

It's almost the end of 2020, and while the year has been chaotic for most of us, the PLUGHITZ Live team is looking for every way we can start 2021 off without some of the burdens of 2020. Our staff members and partners each have some rituals they perform going into a new year, and together we hope that these suggestions can help all of us feel a little less chaotic.

If you're unaware of the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) or haven't heard about it in a while, you can be forgiven. The organization has often stayed in the shadows, working to fix a problem that the general population is not directly affected by, but developers are - Apple's App Store policies. The organization is led by Epic Games and Spotify but has grown to 50 members, with the newest coming on board this week.

If you are not aware of the continuing issues with Cyberpunk 2077, you have not played the game and likely spent very little time online. The number of memes based on the problems has become the majority of the internet, or so it seems. That is because the game was so highly anticipated, and the release has been a massive disappointment. Since we discussed requirements last week, things have gotten even more complex.

One of the truths of the world is that the internet is a dangerous place. Even things that are supposed to be safe and easy can turn into unmitigated disasters. For example, when an update for a network management system is compromised by hackers, adding in a backdoor that allows those hackers to enter the systems that download those updates. That is exactly what happened several months ago when an update for network management software developed by SolarWinds was compromised and distributed to tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of networks.

As the number of video streaming services increases, so does the need for those services to cement themselves into the daily life of their users. Each has taken a different tactic, with some focusing on original programming while others have focused on unique business models. The one thing that has continued to come up as a driving factor for continued usage and engagement is the availability of the platform. Quibi learned this too late, and the service did not survive. HBO Max learned this lesson, too, but has had an issue executing their plan - until now.

This week, Cydia wants a piece of Apple's pie, the whole government wants Facebook in pieces, and Disney has a whole lot of new content on the horizon.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Apple is often credited with creating the integrated app store for the iPhone, but it's not really an accurate remembrance of history. In reality, the iPhone launched without the ability to use 3rd party apps. All that was available were Apple's small number of built-in apps, and 3rd party developers were encouraged to build mobile web apps that would run in Safari. However, users looking to upgrade their iPhone from a media device (the initial categorization for the iPhone) to a smartphone quickly learned how to jailbreak their devices. This allowed for app stores, such as Cydia, to be installed onto the iPhone, bringing app installations to the platform.

Since Microsoft first launched its Xbox Cloud Gaming preview, the testing strategy has raised questions. While the service was available to test through Apple's TestFlight system on iPhone and iPad to a limited number of users, Apple's App Store policies prevented the service from launching on those platforms. While that can be excused as a misunderstanding of the policies, which have been slightly amended, it's still not enough.

In the year 2020, there are very few things that are generally agreed upon. The United States seems to be split down the middle on nearly every topic, except one - Facebook is a problem, though we cannot agree on the exact problem. Some see Facebook's actions as allowing "hate speech" to thrive, while others believe that the platform censors viewpoints it disagrees with. No matter the reason, it seems that most everyone believes that the platform has too much power over the spread of information in the country.

Disney Plus has had a very successful first year. The company had initially hoped to reach between 60 and 90 million subscribers in the year 2024. This week, the company announced that the service had hit 86.8 million subscribers in its first year. That kind of explosive growth, assisted greatly by the lockdowns, has pushed the company to expand the future of the service. With that, this week Disney announced plans for the future of the Marvel and Star Wars franchises over the next few years.

This week, Libra's seizing the Day (Diem), Fortnite is tripping up gamers, and WarnerMedia is almost skipping theaters.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Since the initial announcement of the Libra cryptocurrency, there has been nothing but trouble. Shortly after, members began jumping ship. There was also concern from governments around the world, including the US and EU. Without the partners, and with additional government scrutiny, getting Libra to market was becoming a challenge. As such, launch strategy changes were made.

The world of videogame streaming continues to get more challenging. While more people than ever are streaming their own gameplay, and more people are watching others play, the industry is going through industry growing pains. The most recent challenge against the norms in videogame streaming comes thanks to Fortnite, who accidentally created a new challenge for streamers on Twitch and YouTube with the latest event, Nexus War.

Over the past few years, the number of chat apps has grown in a way that defies explanation. Part of that industry has been chat and communication platforms intended for groups, particularly in business. Several years ago, the nearly undisputed leader in that space was Slack, a service that mimicked the bulletin board systems of the 80s and 90s, without some of the more popular features. Move forward a few years, and the company has been valued at nearly $30 billion because of the company's sale to Salesforce.

Most industries have been hard hit by the global lockdowns, but those that involve being with other people you don't know have had a really rough go of it. Some of these industries have had some recovery, partially because there are no real alternatives. However, movie theaters have struggled because films have delayed their release dates, like Wonder Woman 1984 or moved to streaming services, like Mulan. Things are going to continue to get difficult for theaters, as WarnerMedia has announced that the entire spate of 2021 films will premiere on HBO Max, the company's own streaming service, the same day they land in theaters.

This week, Samsung's in the uncanny valley, Sony's canning PlayStation users, and Google TV can no longer show Netflix content.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

At CES this year, Samsung showed off an impressive yet bizarre product from its Star Labs subsidiary - NEON. This service uses AI to produce a digital assistant that is convincingly human in both vocal capabilities as well as in visual. The second aspect was the real shock - a moving, talking, interacting virtual human being on a screen. In the demo, these virtual people were on large screens on a wall at a distance. According to reports, this reality might be about to change in Samsung's device future.

Before the launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, we all knew that pre-orders were going to be rough. Between limited stock and pre-order bots taking a large percentage of what is available, availability was going to be a problem. While on the Microsoft side, it's only been an inconvenience, but on the Sony side, it's caused a different issue around PlayStation Plus.

One of the biggest fears for a connected home is when that connection disappears. We've all experienced internet outages, causing our connected devices to become suddenly useless. For the most part, this is merely an inconvenience. But, what if someone is trying to get into your home and cuts your internet connection - killing your connected devices, such as security cameras? That is exactly the problem that Amazon is hoping to eliminate with its new Sidewalk feature.

Recently, a report showed that the number of internet power users has grown over the past year. This was no surprise, as much of the world has begun working from home. In addition, school is now from home, the majority of entertainment is from home. Add to that, the number of devices in our homes that are connected to the internet has expanded. With all of these changes, the amount of data being used is bound to increase as well.

Over the years, Google's inability to pick a business strategy, articulate it to its partners and customers, and execute it to perfection has caused the company problems. Take, for example, the company's messaging strategy with products like Allo coming and going, more than one text app for Android, and more. But messaging hasn't been the only place where the company's lack of focus has caused problems, with the latest being video, and particularly Google TV.

This week, new processors are showing up everywhere, internet usage is going up, and Twitch is admitting it screwed up.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Over the past year, Intel's place as THE processor maker has continued to slip away because of a stalling in innovation. Consumer devices have become less computer-focused and moved to phones and tablets, both generally powered by ARM chips. For those who are looking for a laptop, even Windows has implemented support for the ARM architecture in partnership with Qualcomm. But, in traditional terms, AMD has continued to creep up and steal market share with its Ryzen line, which has begun to outperform Intel's chips for less money and using less electricity.

This week saw the much-anticipated release of Microsoft's 4th (or possibly 5th, depending on your view of the Xbox One X) generation of Xbox consoles - the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. The launch comes during a time when Microsoft has reconsidered its gaming business, placing a focus on services and subscriptions to increase recurring revenue, rather than occasional peaks and valleys. The change is part of a wider change to the company's business model, with services becoming a core aspect of the company under CEO Satya Nadella. And, as it has in other divisions, the change seems to be a success.

When internet service providers (ISPs) first started talking about data caps, the stated goal was to discourage excessive data usage. They also reminded customers that very few subscribers ever came close to the cap level - it's only the small number of power users and super power users that would be affected by this new rule. At the time, power and super power users accounted for less than 1 percent of internet subscribers. But, the world has changed since then, and it changed in a way that the ISPs predicted.

Several weeks ago, Twitch streamers began receiving vague emails that videos had been deleted. It followed a statement from Typhoon Studios (a Google Stadia studio) Creative Director Alex Hutchinson claiming that Twitch streamers should be required to acquire a license in order to stream games. While there was speculation that these two events were connected, the smart money was on the Twitch community's complete disregard for copyright law.

This week, Yahoo is coming for your phone, Facebook is leaving Internet Explorer, and videos don't belong to you.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

When Verizon bought Yahoo, we assumed that would be the strangest thing to happen with the aging brand. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of a very strange usage for Yahoo. Earlier this year, the company created Yahoo Mobile - an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) running on their own network. The idea is to compete with AT&T's Cricket and T-Mobile's Metro, offering unlimited data for $40 per month. Adding to the collection of odd decisions comes the newly announced Yahoo Phone, a Yahoo Mobile exclusive.

When Microsoft purchased Zenimax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, the biggest question that was asked was, "Will future Bethesda games in existing franchises be Xbox exclusives?" We discussed this possibility a few weeks ago on the show, agreeing that Microsoft's ownership would not limit the release of future entries, especially for The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. This week, Todd Howard hinted that our theory was correct.

Over the past few months, Microsoft has put all of its energy into the new Microsoft Edge. The browser is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux. It has nearly completely replaced the legacy Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, installing itself over top of the legacy browser. However, there has been one major hurdle to the company's total focus on the future - Internet Explorer. No matter how hard they try, they cannot get some people to abandon the almost officially unsupported browser. Somehow, the browser whose last major version was released in 2013 still holds about 5 percent of the browser market.

When it comes to digital video content, there is nearly an unlimited number of ways to watch. From services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix to iTunes, there are different methods and ownership types. These days almost people seem to prefer the idea of an overall content subscription to individual ownership, which explains the rise of services like Hulu and Disney+. However, some people prefer to purchase their digital content, but that isn't as easy as some people believed. A legal case against Amazon made that all the more clear this week.

This week, videogame streaming is under review, Google is officially under suit, and Quibi is underwater.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

On June 15, 2020, one of the biggest wireless outages in US history happened when a large portion of the T-Mobile network failed across the country. The system was down for 12 hours, with calls failing, including calls to 911. If you weren't a T-Mobile subscriber, you likely saw your friends posting on Facebook asking if anyone else was experiencing issues with their phones.

This week saw a pair of scenarios that could indicate an existential crisis to videogame streaming. Streaming has become a very big business, whether it be individuals streaming on Twitch and Facebook Gaming or competitions streaming the professional matches. In some cases, game developers and publishers are officially involved. For example, Ninja was reportedly paid $1 million to play and promote the launch of Apex Legends. However, for the most part, the developers and publishers are not involved. Twitch is filled with hundreds of everyday people playing games for others to watch.

2020 is shaping up to be a difficult year for Google legally. They have potentially lost its Supreme Court case against Oracle. Now, they will be heading back into court to defend themselves against the entirety of the United States legal system, care of an antitrust suit filed by the Justice Department. The suit has been imminent for months, but a formal filing marks a major change in the relationship between the government and the tech giant. This filing represents the largest US antitrust case since Microsoft in the 1990s that paved the way for Google's rise to power.

The mobile-focused streaming service Quibi has been in trouble since before its launch. This week, that trouble has turned to disaster, as the company has announced it is shutting down around December 1, 2020 and looking for a buyer for the corporate assets. The executives did everything in their power to raise the value and recognition of the brand months before it was made available. They signed an agreement with T-Mobile, which brought the service to T-Mobile Tuesdays offering 6 months for free. They also signed big-name content, such as Reno 911!.

This week, Oracle's eyeing a Supreme Court win, Epic is keeping iOS Unreal, and DirecTV is on (fire) sale.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

A little over a decade ago, Oracle followed what seemed like every other tech company and filed suit against Google. While it was the popular thing to do at the time, Oracle's suit was different from everyone else's. Oracle claimed that, in Google's implementation of Oracle's Java programming language for Android, they duplicated protected API interfaces. Google argued that the API surfaces, or the outer structure that defines the methods and arguments for those methods, were publicly available and, therefore, not protectable.

When Epic Games sued Apple, it looked like the fight would center on Fortnite. But, Apple decided to expand the ban against Epic Games, revoking the company's developer license effective at the end of their month. This move had a significantly bigger impact than just preventing iPhone owners from playing one of the most popular games in the world. It meant that everyone who uses Unreal Engine to build their apps and games for iPhone, iPad, and macOS, would lose that core. To express just how important Unreal Engine is to the software world, even GMS's new Hummer uses it for the infotainment system.

When it comes to the mobile world, there is an important battle heating up over the way developers and users are treated. As time goes on, sides are forming and unlikely allies are building. Some companies have been incredibly outspoken, like Epic Games, which went so far as to sue Apple over its billing policies. Facebook and Microsoft spoke out over Apple's gaming policies.

Anyone who regularly uses Yelp's rating service knows that user ratings should always be taken with a grain of salt. Far too often, user reviews are published by accounts that haven't been to the location, are associated with the business or a competitor, or over emphasize the negative impact of their experience. We've all seen a user rate a restaurant 1 star because the place setting was missing a fork, or because the server was a little slow to get water for the table during a busy service.

When AT&T purchased DirecTV in 2015, a lot of people were surprised by the purchase. The brand had been struggling for years and AT&T was not a player in the media space. The idea that AT&T thought that they could revitalize a brand that was completely outside of their wheelhouse was a concern for investors and DirecTV subscribers. In the 5 years since the purchase, things have only gotten worse. AT&T has been sued by investors and investigated by the government. The last resort for the brand was to sell the brand.