Interview with Rover CEO as pet-sitting giant closes $2.3B acquisition | Former Navy SEAL sues Amazon over counterfeit book sales

It’s the start of another new era at Rover. The Seattle-based pet-sitting business completed its $2.3 billion deal with Blackstone on Tuesday, marking the latest chapter in a 13-year journey that began at a hackathon and took the company through a pandemic, a public offering, and a private equity acquisition. We caught up with longtime CEO Aaron Easterly this morning. Read more. 

Expedia Group will cut back 1,500 roles this year, including more than 200 in Washington state, as part of an operational review impacting the online travel giant’s Product & Technology division. The company said it will incur pre-tax charges of $80 million to $100 million related to the cutbacks. Read more.

Amazon is being sued by author and former Navy SEAL David Goggins on allegations that the company knowingly allowed the sale of fake versions of his books and other products. The endurance athlete and motivational speaker says Amazon ignored his pleas to stop third-party sellers from offering counterfeit copies of his best-selling books. Read more.

Rivian, Lucid and other EV makers are stuck in park in Washington state as the latest effort to revise a law barring direct sales to consumers has stalled in the legislature. The law, which prevents manufacturers from competing against franchised auto dealerships, denies some companies the ability to offer test drives, and some argue it could be slowing electric vehicle adoption in the state. (Above: A Lucid studio space at University Village in Seattle.) Read more. 

Can AI boost clean energy efforts? U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Sen. Maria Cantwell (above, left) sought answers to that question in Seattle as they met with West Coast tech executives and leaders from national laboratories to strategize partnerships. Read more.

Seattle data governance startup Codified raised $4 million to help companies get a better handle on how to manage internal data access standards. Former execs from Snowflake and Microsoft invested in the round, which was led by Madrona Venture Group and Vine Ventures. Read more.