WSJ Main Street columnist Bill McGurn weighs in on Elon Musk’s mass Twitter layoffs as some employees file lawsuit on ‘The Evening Edit.’
Kathy Griffin was the latest casualty in Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover as the comedian’s account was suspended Sunday.
Griffin, 62, changed her profile name to Musk, and appeared to be promptly banned from the social media site.
Despite her handle showing her own @kathygriffin name, the moniker by her blue checkmark said “Elon Musk” — which goes against the company policy against impersonation.
GIGI HADID DUMPS TWITTER AFTER MUSK BUYOUT, CALLS SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM A ‘CESSPOOL OF HATE’
Kathy Griffin appeared to be suspended from Twitter Sunday when her account went missing from the platform. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
The SpaceX founder indicated he was taking his “Chief Tweet” role seriously as he addressed fake accounts just weeks after officially acquiring Twitter for $44 billion following months of legal wrangling.
ELON MUSK SAYS TWITTER WILL SOON ALLOW USERS TO MONETIZE CONTENT, MAKE LONG-FORM POSTS
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” he wrote Sunday night.
“Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning. This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue.”
Musk is launching an $8 monthly subscription service where any Twitter user may be able to easily attain a blue checkmark symbol.
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The simple blue mark was previously used to verify government accounts, notable figures, politicians, journalists and other vetted users.
“Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark,” he added in the series of tweets.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk smiles as he addresses guests at the Offshore Northern Seas 2022 (ONS) meeting in Stavanger, Norway on August 29, 2022. (Carina Johansen / Getty Images)
The overhaul is designed in efforts to pay off company debt. Of Twitter’s nearly 237 million users, less than 450,000 accounts currently have the blue check mark symbols.
A class-action lawsuit was filed against the company by workers who claimed the layoffs violate federal law requiring 60 days’ notice for employees, also known as the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
When Illinois’ wealthiest man, Ken Griffin, announced Thursday that he plans to move the headquarters of his investment firm from Chicago to Miami, it was not only a major development for Citadel, it also came at an intriguing time politically for the billionaire hedge fund manager.
Illinois Republican voters are poised on Tuesday to accept or reject some or all members of a slate of GOP candidates for statewide offices that Griffin funded with $50 million. That slate is headed by Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, who is vying to be the Republican nominee for governor.
Considering the timing and political optics, it points to a potentially early concession speech. Irvin is in a hotly contested six-way race for the nomination and facing strong opposition from state Sen. Darren Bailey of Xenia.
Bailey has been helped, in part, by a slew of TV ads paid for by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Pritzker-backed Democratic Governors Association that label Bailey as “too conservative” for Illinois. It is a backhanded push for conservatives to back Bailey, who Democrats think will be easier to defeat in the fall.
In a statement Thursday just hours after Griffin’s announcement, Irvin blamed Pritzker for Citadel’s departure and for refusing “to acknowledge what everyone sees, which is that his high-tax, pro-criminal administration is literally driving jobs and businesses out of state.”
“In the last month alone, Illinois lost Boeing, Caterpillar and now Citadel,” Irvin said, noting recent announcements by the defense contractor and airplane-maker and Caterpillar Inc. that they are moving their corporate headquarters to Virginia and Texas, respectively.
Adding a pitch for his candidacy, Irvin said, “It’s a clear pattern that shows no signs of ending unless we beat Pritzker in November, and I’m the only person in this race with a proven record of success to take Illinois back.”
Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said Griffin’s departure was a sign of the state’s modern-day business climate.
Durkin quoted Ian Fleming’s “Goldfinger,” in which the villain told James Bond, “‘They have a saying in Chicago. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time, it’s enemy action.’ First it’s Boeing. Second it’s Caterpillar. Third, it’s Citadel,” Durkin said.
“I mean, this is a huge statement. What we’re seeing with these corporate offices, (Pritzker) just can’t dismiss it as a couple of white collar jobs,” he said. “This is going to reverberate all over the country. This is what Illinois is right now versus what it used to be.”
Griffin’s note to employees said his Citadel will relocate to new headquarters in Miami’s financial district after more than 30 years in Chicago. Citadel has about 1,000 employees in Chicago and will maintain an office in the city.
While Boeing and Caterpillar have announced they are leaving, Pritzker spokeswoman Emily Bittner said other big businesses, such as Kellogg Co., have announced they are moving to Illinois.
“We will continue to welcome those businesses — including Kellogg, which just this week announced it is moving its largest headquarters to Illinois — and support emerging industries that are already creating good jobs and investing billions in Illinois, like data centers, electric vehicles and quantum computing,” Bittner said in a statement.
Pritzker’s efforts to defeat Irvin in the GOP primary symbolize the bitter relationship between the state’s billionaire governor and Griffin. Griffin had frequently cited fears of crime in Chicago as a potential reason for moving Citadel, blaming Pritzker and his policies but not Mayor Lori Lightfoot, including at an October 2021 event at the Economic Club of Chicago.
In the November 2020 election, Griffin spent $53.75 million to oppose Pritzker’s signature agenda item, a proposed constitutional amendment rejected by voters to change the state from a flat-rate income tax to a graduated-rate levy. Pritzker spent $58 million to encourage its passage.
In the 2018 governor’s race, Griffin gave one-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner $22.5 million in his losing reelection effort against Pritzker, who spent more than $170 million of his own money on his campaign. Griffin gave Rauner $13.5 million for Rauner’s winning 2014 effort.
Also in 2020, Griffin pumped $4.5 million into a group that opposed the retention of Democratic Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride. Kilbride went on to become the first court justice to lose a retention vote. This time around, with elections outside of Cook County for a redistricted Supreme Court, Griffin has given the group more than $6.25 million.
Since 2002, Illinois State Board of Elections records show, Griffin has contributed $179 million to state and local candidates, mainly Republicans, and organizations. But Griffin also was a financial supporter of Chicago Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel.
In May, Griffin announced he was donating $25 million to launch two academies based at the University of Chicago to provide advanced police training to law enforcement leaders and violence interruption organizations.
Griffin also has given roughly $40 million to various outside groups seeking to influence the outcome of congressional races across the country in the midterm elections. That has made him one of the top individual donors in the nation involved in reshaping Congress this cycle.
Griffin is also the top individual donor to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, giving him $5 million.
If he decides to devote his resources to Florida, Griffin’s departure could mean an even more depleted fundraising future for Illinois Republicans who had counted on his wealth to help in part make up for Pritzker’s lavish spending on Democrats.
While Republicans pounced on the news to blast Democratic leadership in Illinois and Chicago, at least one leading Chicago Democrat did not shed many tears about Citadel’s leaving.
U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia of Chicago said the news of Citadel’s move “doesn’t come as a great shock” since Griffin previously had been moving jobs out of Illinois.
“I guess he feels more welcome as a Republican, as an archconservative, in a state where DeSantis is governor,” Garcia, a progressive Democrat, said before an appearance at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which is holding its annual meeting in Chicago. “I wish his employees well.”
But Garcia said he also won’t be surprised if Griffin continues “meddling” in Illinois politics from his new locale.
“Billionaires can still affect elections, no matter where they are,” he said.
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Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin has sold a $1.2bn stake in Citadel Securities to venture capitalists Sequoia and Paradigm, paving the way for an initial public offering of one of the world’s biggest market makers.
The deal, which values the trading firm at about $22bn, marks a rare foray into the financial sector for Sequoia, the Silicon Valley group best known for its early bets on tech companies such as Apple and Google.
It is the first outside investment in Citadel Securities, which was founded in 2001 as a separate entity to Griffin’s $43bn hedge fund Citadel, and has emerged as a major player in global markets in its own right.
One of the biggest beneficiaries from the move to high-speed trading, Citadel Securities acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers in stocks, bonds and derivatives. It has grown in the biggest market maker for US stocks, handling about 27 per cent of all US equities trading, by stealing market share from bulge-bracket banks.
Citadel Securities’ chief executive Peng Zhao said the company planned to use the investment to expand more aggressively internationally, and into new markets and asset classes. This includes expanding into crypto, said Matt Huang, who co-founded Paradigm with Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam.
Griffin has been critical of cryptocurrencies in the past, describing them in October as “a jihadist call that we don’t believe in the dollar”. However, he added at the time: “Whatever the virtues are of that product, which I think are pretty nebulous, will become very different in a world of competitive exchanges and competitive pricing by tier-one market makers willing to put their best foot forward.”
The investment also prepares the ground for a future IPO, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Citadel Securities is the biggest market maker for ordinary American traders — accounting for about 37 per cent of all retail trading — paying various brokerages for the right to handle their orders. Trading platform Robinhood used this “payment for order flow” to offer its customers commission-free trading, helping usher in the era of free trading in the US in recent years.
Citadel Securities’ prowess has attracted envy from other parts of Wall Street, and increased attention from regulators and politicians. It was pushed uncomfortably on to the public stage last year during the market upheaval surrounding trading in GameStop and other meme stocks.
The firm was blamed by Redditors for Robinhood’s decision to curtail trading in GameStop at the height of the frenzy, and some of them argued that the firm benefits from trading at their expense.
Griffin was called to testify before the House of Representatives financial services committee in February 2021 following the GameStop frenzy. He defended his businesses and said he was convinced that the “incredibly positive impact” of Citadel and Citadel Securities would shine through.
Griffin owns about 85 per cent of Citadel Securities, which would value his stake in the business at about $18bn. Late last year Griffin beat a group of more than 17,000 retail traders at auction, buying a copy of the US Constitution for $43.2m. In 2019, he paid £95m for a London house near Buckingham Palace.
The venture capital investment was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Kathy Griffin is laughing off her “really hoarse” voice after undergoing lung cancer surgery.
The 60-year-old comedian gave fans an update on how she’s doing in an Instagram video posted Saturday, five days after she had half of her left lung removed.
“Hi, you guys. I might start to post little videos about, like, my recovery and stuff, but my voice is, like, really hoarse,” Griffin said, joking she hopes her raspiness doesn’t “scare people.”
“I’m laughing. It’s just even that notion,” she added. “Also, for some reason, I laugh at everything now. And if it’s horrible, I laugh way more!”
KATHY GRIFFIN BLAMES ‘SNL’ CREATOR LORNE MICHAELS FOR NOT HELPING HER AFTER TRUMP PHOTO CONTROVERSY
The Emmy winner first updated fans on Twitter the day after her surgery to let them know she was hanging in there.
Kathy Griffin shared her first video with followers since announcing her stage one lung cancer diagnosis. (Tara Ziemba/Getty Images)
“My cancer surgery went well yesterday. Phew,” she wrote Tuesday.
KATHY GRIFFIN REVEALS PAST SUICIDE ATTEMPT, PILL ADDICTION AMID LUNG CANCER DIAGNOSIS
To have some fun with her followers, Griffin shared a handful of photos of the floral arrangements she received after announcing her cancer diagnosis. The comedian asked fans to match up the arrangements with the celebrities who sent them to her, providing a list of names including Kris Jenner, Rachael Ray and Paula Abdul.
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The former “My Life On the D-List” star, who said she has “never smoked,” revealed her diagnosis Monday on Twitter — the same day ABC’s “Nightline” aired an interview in which she shared harrowing details about her secret pill addiction and being suicidal in early 2020.
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“The irony is not lost on me that, a little over a year ago, all I wanted to do was die. And now, all I wanna do is live,” she said.