A Twitter spy is convicted, Elon Musk sells nearly $7B in Tesla shares, and talk resurfaces that SoftBank should 'go private'

The US Justice Department is preparing to sue Google as soon as next month, according to Bloomberg, capping years of work to build a case that Google illegally dominates the digital advertising market.

A former Twitter employee was today convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia by turning over personal information of platform users who’d employed anonymous handles to criticize the Kingdom.

A tragedy and also an apparent preview of what's coming: Motherboard has republished court documents that show Facebook, served with a warrant, gave police a teenager’s private chats about her abortion. Police then used those chats to seize her phone and computer.

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Boulevard, a six-year-old, Los Angeles startup that makes software for booking appointments, messaging clients, and taking payments for hair salons, nail salons, and barbershops (among others), has raised $70 million in Series C funding. Point72 Private Investments led the round, joined by previous backers Toba Capital, Index Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup, and VMG Partners. The outfit has now raised $110 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

CleverTap, a nine-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that operates cloud-based customer management and engagement tracking tools, has raised $105 million in new funding. Canada’s pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec led the California-headquartered startup’s Series D funding, with participation from IIFL AMC’s Tech Fund, Tiger Global, Sequoia India and Recruit Holdings. The startup says the new round values the company at about $775 million, up from $385 million in 2019. TechCrunch has more here.

Truework, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company that builds technology for mortgage and consumer-centric lenders to instantly verify the income and employment of borrowers, has raised $50 million in a Series C round of funding led by G Squared. TechCrunch has more here.

CreatorDAO, a web3 startup based in Santa Monica, Ca., that plans to invest in content creators and supply them with access to capital and mentorship in exchange for a portion of their future earnings, raised a $20 million seed round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Initialized Capital, with additional participation from Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media, The Chainsmokers’ Mantis Ventures, Liam Payne, Michael Ovtiz, M13, Audacious Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Abstract Ventures, and Liquid 2 Ventures. Fortune has more here.

Evidence Partners, a one-year-old Toronto startup that aims to help pharmas and medical device companies streamline the medical research process with its literature review automation platform, raised $20 million in funding led by Thomvest Ventures, with Pender Ventures and Export Development Canada also contributing to the round. BetaKit has more here.

Pinata, an NFT distribution platform based in Omaha, Neb., has raised $21.5 million in seed and Series A funding. The Series A was co-led by Greylock and Pantera Capital; the seed was co-led by Greylock and Offline Ventures. Additional investors include Volt Capital, Opeasea, and Alchemy. TechCrunch has more here.

PreciTaste, a 10-year-old, New York-based company that sells a service that monitors food quality in quick-service kitchens, predicting demand and supply to make order prep recommendations to workers, has raised $24 million in Series A funding. Melitas Ventures and Cleveland Avenue co-led the tranche; TechCrunch has more here.

Shopic, a six-year-old Tel Aviv startup that that sells touchscreen hardware for shopping carts that display promotions while also acting as a self-service checkout window, raised a $35 million Series B round led by Qualcomm Ventures; Vintage Investment Partners, Clal Insurance, IBI Tech Fund, Tal Ventures, Claridge Israel, and Shufersal also participated. The company has raised a total of $56 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Spin Technology, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that scans and secures SaaS apps using an algorithm and database of malicious apps and browser extensions, raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Blueprint Equity, with Santa Barbara Venture Partners and Blu Venture Investors also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

Utility Global, a four-year-old startup based in Houston that is developing products that use zero electricity to convert sustainable waste streams directly into high-purity hydrogen, raised a $25 million Series B round led by Ara Partners and joined by Samsung Ventures, NOVA, and Aramco. The company has raised a total of $33 million. More here.

Founderpath, a two-year-old, Austin-based firm that lends money to SaaS companies, has secured $10 million in equity funding and another $135 million in debt.  Forbright Bank, with $8 billion in assets under management, led the debt piece of the deal; Singh Capital Partners led the equity side. TechCrunch has more here.

Salvo Health, a year-old, New York-based virtual health clinic focusing on specialty care for chronic gut conditions, has raised $10.5 million in seed funding led by Threshold Ventures, with participation from Torch Capital and Felicis. MobiHealth News has more here.

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A year after going public, app growth and monetization agency AppLovin submitted an unsolicited proposal today to buy the game engine Unity in a deal worth $20 billion. But there’s a catch: Unity would have to terminate its recent deal to merge with ironSource, an AppLovin competitor. TechCrunch has more here.

Elon Musk sold 7.92 million shares of Tesla worth around $6.88 billion between August 5th and August 9th, according to a series of financial filings published tonight. CNBC takes a look here.

Andrew Peterson, the founder and CEO of API security company Signal Sciences, has joined the Cisco-backed venture firm Decibel as a founder-advisor.

Tennis great Serena Williams announced in a new Vogue article published this morning that she is retiring from tennis after playing in the U.S. Open this month; she said she plans to focus on building her family and delving more deeply into venture capital.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group let go of 9,241 employees in the three months to June, according to the company’s latest filing. The period marked its first-ever contraction in revenue, notes Bloomberg.

Groupon, which operates an e-commerce marketplace, laid off more than 500 of its 3,416 employees, TechCrunch reported yesterday. 

Social media marketing firm Hootsuite says it has slashed its workforce by 30%. “We need to refocus our strategies to drive efficiency, growth and financial sustainability,” CEO Tom Keiser said in a statement sent to TechCrunch. The company offered no specifics on what exactly is changing about the business. It did not disclose the specific number of workers affected, nor would it say if they received any severance.

Snap is in the early stages of planning layoffs, according to The Verge. The outlet says the planned cuts come after the company recently delivered disappointing earnings results and didn't forecast earnings for the third quarter — news that sent its stock price cratering to near-all-time lows.

Coinbase shares dropped in extended trading today after the crypto exchange reported a loss of over $1 billion in the second quarter and missed analysts’ estimates for revenue. Coinbase said its revenue declined almost 64% in the quarter as cryptocurrency prices fell. CNBC has more here.

The 10 public companies with the biggest bitcoin portfolios (as of late July). Hint: Coinbase is one of them.

Despite trying to play the role of industry consolidator, it’s become clear that FTX founder and crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is not immune to the contagion that’s infected the cryptocurrency industry. CNBC has more here.

Talk that SoftBank Group would be better off as a private company has reportedly resurfaced after the conglomerate posted that record $23 billion quarterly loss. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son -- who owned roughly 28% stake of the company as of late March -- has debated the idea of going private with his inner circle for at least five years, says Bloomberg.

The data mining company Palantir says it expects sales growth to hit its slowest pace since it went public as the federal government delays some spending on contracts. "These contracts do not disappear,” CEO Alex Karp said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call yesterday. "Sometimes, they are put off. Sometimes, they take too long for us to get them.” The WSJ has the story.

Apple won’t even tell Ben Stiller how many of you are watching "Severance."

That dinner tab has soared; here are all the reasons.

The rise of knotless braids.

Hey, things could be worse.

Live like Ben Affleck in L.A.'s swanky 'Palisades Riviera' neighborhood.

La Dune, a Southampton estate that once starred in a Woody Allen film, is back on la market.

A $1,000 tank top by Prada. 🤮

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