Plus, U.S. job openings for July totaled 11.24 million.
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Elon Musk filed another notice on Tuesday in an attempt to terminate his $44B Twitter acquisition agreement. In the documents, the Tesla CEO referred to the recent claims by Twitter’s former head of security, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, accusing the social media company of weak privacy and security policies. More: - On July 8, Musk announced he was terminating the agreement to take Twitter private, saying Twitter has not been honest about the number of spam/bots on the platform.
- In the filing on Tuesday, Musk’s legal team cited Zatko’s allegations as additional reasons to terminate the deal.
- Mike Ringler, Musk’s legal representative from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, noted in the filing that the additional notice to terminate the deal is being delivered in case the July 8 filing is “determined to be invalid for any reason.
- Twitter has maintained the accuracy of its 5% figure for spam accounts on the platform.
- Twitter shares closed at $39.32, down ~2% on Tuesday.
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The U.S. Department of Justice is in the early stages of prepping an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. According to sources, the department has been investigating the tech giant since 2019 over allegations that it has abused its market power to stifle smaller tech companies, including app developers and rival hardware firms. More: - The investigation is part of an ongoing effort by the DOJ, the FTC, and Congress to rein in the power of Big Tech in the U.S.
- The DOJ could end up not bringing a formal lawsuit, but reports suggest a potential case could arrive before the end of the year.
- According to legal analysts, any case against Apple would be a difficult fight for the DOJ, as the tech giant has a market cap of over $2.5T and seemingly endless cash reserves.
- Apple shares closed at $158.91 on Tuesday, down ~1.5% for the day. The company is down ~12.7% YTD.
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Owners of the New York Yankees, Los Angeles-based investment firm Main Street Advisors, and U.S. private equity firm RedBird are partnering up to buy Italian football club AC Milan. According to sources, the group is purchasing the club from U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management in a deal valued at €1.2B ($1.2B). More: - Investors in Main Street Advisors include basketball star LeBron James, music producer Jimmy Iovine, and rapper Drake.
- The New York Yankees are owned by the Steinbrenner family, which has owned the Major League Baseball team since 1973.
- The Yankees were last valued at $6B by Forbes.
- The baseball franchise also co-owns the New York City FC franchise with Manchester City Football Group.
- As part of the deal, Elliott agreed to lend RedBird €600M ($600M) at a 7% interest rate to help finance the transaction.
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Best Buy released its Q2 FY2023 earnings on Tuesday, reporting a 13% drop in sales. The consumer electronics retailer generated $10.33B in revenue. Net income came in at $306M, or $1.35 a share, down from $734M reported over the same period last year. More: - Same-store sales dropped 12.1% compared to last year.
- Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said the company closely managed its inventory to ensure it didn’t accumulate excess products.
- Best Buy’s end of Q2 inventory was down 6% compared to last year.
- The company spent $34M on a restructuring effort that included layoffs and halting share buybacks.
- Best Buy shares closed at $74.89 on Tuesday, up 1.61% for the day.
- The company is down ~27% YTD.
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First Solar, the largest solar panel manufacturer in the U.S., plans to build a new factory in the southeastern U.S. CEO Mark Widmar said the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act led the company to choose the U.S. for its new factory. Earlier this month, Congress passed the act aimed at combating climate change and lowering costs for families. More: - First Solar plans to invest up to $1B in the new facility.
- The plant would be the company’s fourth fully integrated U.S. factory.
- The company also plans to spend $185M updating and expanding its existing facilities in Ohio.
- First Solar aims for the new factory to produce 3.5 gigawatts of solar modules annually by 2025.
- Shares of First Solar have jumped over 60% since the end of July.
- The stock closed at $122.31 a share on Tuesday, up ~0.5% for the day.
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Donald Trump's Truth Social has not been approved for Google's Play Store for Android apps. According to a Google spokesperson, the social media platform was not approved due to its insufficient content moderation. More: - Google said it notified Truth Social on Aug. 19 of several violations of Google's terms and policies in their app submission and reiterated that having effective moderation systems is a condition of approval for access to Google's Play store.
- Google said the social media company responded by acknowledging Google's feedback and said they were working on addressing the issues.
- About 44% of U.S. smartphone users have Android devices.
- A recent report revealed that Truth Social owes one of its vendors over $1.6M.
- The SPAC DWAC seeking to merge with Trump's media company is also under investigation by the SEC.
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Quick Hits - Fix your email overload for as little as $7.00 a month.*
- Garry Tan, founder of Initialized Capital and YCombinator alumnus, will become the president and CEO of Y Combinator next year. Tan will be taking over from Geoff Ralston, who has been with YC since 2011. Tan will also continue to serve as founder and partner at Initialized.
- Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency on Monday evening after flood waters impacted one of Jackson, Mississippi’s water-treatment plants. Residents have been warned not to drink the water. About 180,000 people in the capital city and surrounding communities could go without running water indefinitely.
- U.S. job openings for July totaled 11.24 million, nearly double the 5.67 million available workers. The amount is 1 million more job openings than expected in July by FactSet, which estimated 10.3 million job openings for the month.
- Meta Platforms has agreed to settle a lawsuit related to its Cambridge Analytica scandal when Facebook provided access to private user data, which was used for political ad targeting. Meta and the Facebook users suing the company said in the joint filing that they had reached an agreement in principle but did not disclose financial details of the agreement.
- Amid the shifting landscape of embedded systems, developers turn to real-time operating systems when “good enough” isn’t good enough.*
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a Researcher at Inside. Her interests include finance, tech, and startups. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending music festivals, and traveling. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or through email at vanessa@inside.com |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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