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Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson during TechCrunch Disrupt London 2015

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Jeff Lawson , the Centennial State - founder and recently quit CEO of enterprise substructure computer software company Twilio , is the proud new owner of satirical on-line newspaper The Onion .

“ Alright , the news program is out — yes , I bought The Onion , ” Lawson wrotein a LinkedIn postlate Thursday , afterit was first reportedin The New York Times .

Terms of the mint were not disclosed .

The Onion , regarded by many as “ America ’s finest newsworthiness source , ” is a digital media mental institution , serve satire by the spoonful for more than three decades , first as a hebdomadal mark edition lead off in 1988 , then as an online electrical outlet from 1996 with the physical publication stop in 2013.Its spoof storieshave often beenconflated with veridical news show , but The Onion has become a staple part of the digital media landscape for its “ alternate ” take on some of the humanity ’s biggest event — some real , otherscompletely made up — spawning memes such as “ Area Man ” while ape the reporting manner of more traditional word electrical outlet .

“Our Dumb Century”

The Onion has counted several owners through the twelvemonth ( Elon Musk wasapparently concerned at one stop ) , including Spanish - language spreader Univision , whichprocured a verify stake in 2016 . It then trade it alongside Gizmodo to individual equity business firm Great Hill Partnersin 2019 , which created a new media holding company calledG / O Media Inc.

Now , The Onion has landed in the hands of a young Chicago - based firm called Global Tetrahedron , which is in fact a reference to a fictional business firm that appears in a satirical book of account published by The Onion staff in 1999 , call “ Our Dumb Century . ”

The brains behind the new Global TetrahedronisJeff Lawson , who   co - founded Twilioway back in 2008as a way to avail business organization easy embed communication features , such as SMS and calls , into their apps through an program programing interface ( API ) . The companywent world in 2016at a valuation of more than $ 1 billion , go on to make intimately $ 70 billion during the pandemic — before square up at the $ 10 billion to $ 15 billion marker these past couple of years .

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Lawsonannounced back in Januarythat he was step down from Twilio , and he has been on a “ personal goal sideline ” as part of a career disruption since , according to his LinkedIn profile .

But why would Lawson want to buy The Onion ? Well , because he likes it and he has the means to grease one’s palms it .

“ The Onion is an mental hospital , a internal treasure , and we ask it , ” Lawson said in his annunciation post . “ But its success is base on something dissimilar than most media ship’s company . The Onion has been stifled , along with most of the Internet , by byzantine cookie dialogue , paywalls , bizarro paunch fat advertizing , and clickbait substance . And we ’ve had enough . The Internet sucks , and it ’s time we made it better . It ’s metre to focalize on customers — cease users — again . ”

Lawson assures us that more will be coming in the future tense — raw products , new mediums — but for now he ’s asking everyone to pony up some cash for the cause . At the time of penning , The Onion ’s homepageis stick on with “ breaking newsworthiness ” and “ veer ” report that are only about this acquisition , where Lawson is asking those who share his commission to donate exactly $ 1 . For nothing in income tax return .

“ If you care about The Onion , if The Onion ever made you laugh — give us a buck , ” Lawson wrote . “ For that dollar , you get … utterly nothing . Just a self-satisfied sense that you ’ve once again spent less on The Onion than it ’s worth in your life . ”