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Image: Nati Harnik/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Billionaire Joe Ricketts has thrown a temper tantrum so big he shut his own company down.
Ricketts—the founder of Ameritrade, whose children own the Chicago Cubs, and whose wealth is estimated at around $2.1 billion—closed down local New York City news sites DNAinfo and Gothamist on Thursday, as well as websites in a variety of other cities including Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
After a months-long battle, employees at the recently-merged news outlets voted to become members of Writers Guild of America East about a week ago.
“No one’s trying to bankrupt anybody,” DNAinfo reporter Katie Honan told The New York Times after the vote's results were made public. “We just want to have an ability to negotiate things, and not necessarily money. If this is the future of journalism, it should be a career for people, not a postcollege hobby.”
Ricketts pleaded a lack of economic viability in a statement on Thursday.
In his statement, Ricketts wrote that he believes neighborhood storytelling "remains essential." Just not, evidently, essential enough for him to fund.
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