News

Updated, with judge setting hearing: The satirical news site The Onion has won the bidding for the assets of Alex Jones’ InfoWars, which he has been forced to sell off after a defamation judgment in favor of the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting massacre.

The acquisition came with the support of a number of the families who secured the $1.4 billion verdict, a judgment that forced Jones’ Free Speech Systems into bankruptcy. Everytown for Gun Safety will be working with The Onion via a multi-year advertising agreement.

“The Onion’s goal with the acquisition is to end Infowars’ relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good,” the site said.

The bankruptcy judge in the case, Christopher Lopez, said that he wanted to hold a hearing on the bidding process next week, per the AP.

Updated with executive appointment, additional details. The Onion, which is once again under new ownership, has appointed former NBC News reporter Ben Collins CEO.

G/O Media, which had owned the satire outlet since 2019, announced Thursday that it had sold it to four anonymous digital media veterans calling themselves “Global Tetrahedron,” a nod to an old Onion gag. One of the owners revealed himself to be Jeff Lawson, co-founder of Twilio, a San Francisco-based cloud communications firm with a market value of $11 billion.

In a post on Twitter/X, Lawson stepped out of the shadows, as did Collins.

“The Onion is an institution, a national treasure, and we need it,” wrote Lawson, who will take the title of Chairman. “But its success is based on something different than most media companies. The Onion has been stifled, along with most of the Internet, by byzantine cookie dialogs, paywalls, bizarro belly fat ads,...

Satirical news site The Onion has a new owner.

G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller announced on Thursday that the company had sold the publication to a Chicago-based company called Global Tetrahedron, which is comprised of “four digital media veterans with a profound love for The Onion and comedy based content.” The firm is run by former NBC reporter Ben Collins and owned by tech executive Jeff Lawson, who spoke to The New York Times about the buy.

(The name of the company, social media users pointed out on Thursday, is the same as a fictional firm that appears in The Onion’s first book, 1999’s Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America’s Finest News Source.)

According to Spanfeller, the new company will preserve the publication’s current staff and keep the site based in Chicago. “The Onion for over 35 years has been an...

San Francisco, Feb 14 (Ians) US-based cloud communications company Twilio has announced to lay off about 17 per cent of its global workforce amid cost-cutting measures.

In addition, Twilio will reorganise its internal organisation and create two business units — Twilio Communications and Twilio Data & Applications.

“We have to spend less, streamline, and become more efficient. To do that, we’re forming two business units: Twilio Communications and Twilio Data & Applications. And today, I’m unfortunately bearing the news that we’re parting ways with approximately 17 per cent of our team,” Twilio co-founder and CEO Jeff Lawson wrote in an email sent to all Twilio employees.

In September last year, Twilio sacked 11 per cent of its employees — more than 850 people from its 7,800-strong workforce globally.

All affected employees will receive health coverage and career resources, as well as 12 weeks of base pay plus one week per year of service, according to the company.

San Francisco, Sep 15 (Ians) Cloud communications company Twilio has sacked 11 per cent of its employees — more than 850 people from its 7,800-strong workforce globally.

The impacted employees in the US and other countries will get an email, letting them know their role has been impacted and outlining next steps.

“Twilions who are impacted will also be able to meet with a leader from their team,” Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson said in a statement late on Wednesday.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat things. A layoff is the last thing we want to do, but I believe it’s wise and necessary. I take responsibility for those decisions, as well as the difficult decision to do this layoff,” Lawson added.

The company said that it applied a rigorous selection process to examine which roles were most tightly aligned to its priorities.

“Similarly, we looked at the size of the investments we’ve...

Guy Oseary and Michael Powers’ education-focused live video platform, Bright, has raised $15 million in a round led by Oseary and Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, Rit Capital, and Regah Ventures. Also participating in the round are Marc Benioff’s Time Ventures, Globo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Twilio CEO/cofounder Jeff Lawson, fashion mogul Rachel Zoe, Drew and […]

Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.

Ben Folds has launched a new podcast, Lightning Bugs, in which he discusses creativity with guests from the worlds of art, science, public policy, and music — and writes a song with each guest at the end of every episode.

Lightning Bugs premieres Thursday, April 8th, and the first episode features anthropologist and author Augustín Fuentes. The show is available on all podcast providers, while a special video simulcast of the premiere is also streaming on YouTube. New episodes of Lightning Bugs will be released on Thursday.

Lightning Bugs was inspired...

With its film line-up previously announced, the SXSW Film Festival has unveiled its keynote and a very robust second round of featured speakers. This year’s online edition of SXSW kicks off on March 16 and continues through March 20.

SXSW will feature Nobel Peace Prize-nominated political leader Stacey Abrams in a Keynote conversation with author N.K. Jemisin.

As for the new round of featured speakers, the roster includes Elizabeth Banks, Mayim Bialik, Mary J. Blige, James Cameron, Bill Hader, Noah Hawley, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Demi Lovato, Desus Nice and the Kid Mero, Amber Ruffin, The Russo Brothers, Jennifer Salke, Cliff “Method Man” Smith among others.

“We’re truly excited about the remarkable range of creative talent and innovators that we’ve announced today as part of SXSW Online,” said Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer. “In the 30 plus years of SXSW, we’ve showcased so many incredible voices who have shown tremendous courage and leadership,...

Sports media group One Championship is launching its own version of reality TV show “The Apprentice” that kicks off from March this year. It has amassed a suitably muscular array of broadcast partners.

“The Apprentice: One Championship Edition” assembles 16 fight candidates to compete through business and physical challenges over 13 episodes. Their $250,000 prize is the chance to work for a year directly under One Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong.

Contestants hail from 11 countries and were named as: Lara Pearl Alvarez (Philippines); Alvin Ang (Singapore); Irina Chadsey (Russia); Eugene Chung (U.S.); Teirra Kamolvattanavith (Thailand); Joy Koh (Singapore); Monica Millington (U.S.); Paulina Purnomowati (Indonesia); Jessica Ramella (Venezuela); Niraj Puran Rao (India); Nazee Sajedi (U.S.); Louie Sangalang (Philippines); Sho Takei (Japan); Clinton Tudor (New Zealand); Roman Wilson (U.S.); and Kexin Ye (Germany).

With the Singapore Tourism Board as partner, “The Apprentice: One Championship Edition” was filmed entirely in Singapore...

Updated. A number of high-profile tech CEOs started to speak out against the government’s policy to separate immigrant children from their parents at the border Tuesday. Those voicing opposition included Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

Cook called the policy “inhumane” and “heartbreaking” during a speech held in Dublin Tuesday. He said that Apple would be a constructive voice in the immigration debate, and was quoted by The Irish Times saying: “I think that what’s happening is inhumane, it needs to stop.”

Wojcicki said in a tweet Tuesday that it was “heartbreaking to see what’s happening to families at the border.” She didn’t explicitly call for the government to change its course, but instead tweeted a link to a Mashable article that lists resources for donating to and supporting legal aid and advocacy groups, including...