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Block Wins Dismissal of Shareholder Lawsuit Over 2021 Cash App Breach

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Block (XYZ.N), the fintech company led by Jack Dorsey, has defeated a shareholder lawsuit tied to a 2021 Cash App data breach that exposed information from about 8.2 million users.

The Case

  • Shareholders accused Block of:

    • Inflating its stock price by failing to disclose weak data security before the breach.

    • Delaying disclosure until April 2022, nearly four months after the incident.

    • Misleading Afterpay shareholders ahead of its $29 billion acquisition of the BNPL firm in January 2022.

Court’s Ruling

  • U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan dismissed the case.

  • She ruled there was no evidence Block intended to defraud investors.

  • General statements about data security risks were not guarantees of system safety.

  • Shareholders also failed to prove:

    • A unique link between alleged misstatements and the Afterpay deal.

    • That Block executives had a specific motive or benefit from the alleged omissions.

Context

  • Block has faced regulatory pressure over Cash App:

    • $80M settlement with 48 U.S. state regulators (Jan 2024).

    • $40M settlement with New York (Apr 2024).

  • Despite these issues, Cash App processed $283B in inflows in 2024 and had 57M monthly active users by year-end.

What’s Next

  • The case (In re Block Inc Securities Litigation, No. 22-08636) is now dismissed, though investors could still pursue an appeal.

  • For Block, the ruling removes a major legal overhang as it continues to scale Cash App and integrate Afterpay.

Apple Faces Shareholder Lawsuit Over Alleged Overstatement of AI Progress

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Apple (AAPL.O) was sued on Friday by shareholders in a proposed securities fraud class action accusing the company of overstating its progress in integrating advanced artificial intelligence into its Siri voice assistant. The lawsuit claims this misrepresentation negatively impacted iPhone sales and Apple’s stock price.

The complaint covers shareholders who experienced significant losses, potentially amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars, over the year ending June 9, 2025. During that period, Apple introduced several product features and aesthetic upgrades but kept AI advancements modest.

Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment. The lawsuit names CEO Tim Cook, Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh, and former CFO Luca Maestri as defendants. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.

Shareholders, led by Eric Tucker, argue that at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, the company implied that AI would play a major role in the iPhone 16. Apple launched “Apple Intelligence,” which was marketed as enhancing Siri’s power and user-friendliness. However, the plaintiffs contend that Apple did not have a functional prototype of AI-based Siri features and could not reasonably expect those features to be ready for the iPhone 16 launch.

The lawsuit states that the reality started to become apparent on March 7, 2025, when Apple announced delays to some Siri upgrades until 2026. This was further reinforced at the June 9 Worldwide Developers Conference when analysts expressed disappointment with Apple’s AI progress.

Since hitting a record high on December 26, 2024, Apple shares have fallen nearly 25%, erasing roughly $900 billion in market value.

The case is identified as Tucker v. Apple Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-05197.

Intel Wins Lawsuit Over Foundry Losses, $32 Billion Market Drop

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Intel has successfully defended itself against a shareholder lawsuit that accused the company of fraudulently hiding issues within its foundry business, which led to significant financial losses and a $32 billion drop in market value in a single day. The lawsuit stemmed from Intel’s failure to immediately disclose a $7 billion operating loss in its foundry business for the fiscal year 2023, which wasn’t revealed until April 2024.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, in a decision made public on Tuesday, dismissed the claims, ruling that shareholders had incorrectly linked the $7 billion loss to Intel’s Foundry Services business. The judge further noted that statements made by former CEO Patrick Gelsinger regarding the company’s “significant traction” and “growing demand” for its foundry services were not misleading, as they referred to specific customers, not the overall revenue, which had been declining.

The lawsuit had accused Intel of inflating its stock price from January 25 to August 1, 2024, during which time the company posted a quarterly loss of $1.61 billion, announced layoffs of more than 15,000 employees, and suspended its dividend to save $10 billion in 2025. As a result, Intel’s stock price dropped by 26% the following day, causing a loss of $32 billion in market capitalization.

The Santa Clara-based company, which has faced growing competition from chipmakers like Nvidia, AMD, Samsung, and TSMC, has struggled to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Intel ousted Gelsinger as CEO in December.

The case, titled In re Intel Corp Securities Litigation, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.