Author: openjargon

Ryan Salame, a former top executive at FTX and member of Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle, has been slapped with a hefty prison sentence.

Salame was one of four top executives to plead guilty since the crypto exchange's 2022 collapse.

He was sentenced to seven and half years in prison on Tuesday, federal prosecutors in New York announced.

Salame's sentence comes on the heels of Bankman-Fried's own 25-year prison sentence on fraud and money laundering charges, which was handed down in March. Salame is the first of Bankman-Fried's deputies to get prison time.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

• Hollywood had a miserable Memorial Day weekend — one of the worst it has had in decades.
• But this shouldn't be a surprise: Movie-going has been in decline since the early 2000s.
• Guess what started taking off in the early 2000s? Yup. The internet.

This weekend my family went to the movies, twice. We saw Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (pretty good!) and The Garfield Movie (what you think it would be).

But many, many Americans did not go to any movie, at all. This past holiday weekend was the worst Memorial Day showing Hollywood has seen in decades, with ticket sales down a staggering 40% from last year.

One thing Hollywood is very good at is generating explanations for a flop — or in this case, multiple flops. Last year's actor and writer strikes cut into movie production; marketing movies is hard in 2024; maybe the movies weren't any good; streaming has taught people to stay home, etc.

But the most obvious explanation is the one Hollywood and the people who love Hollywood are least likely to say out loud: People aren't going to the movies like they used to. Period.

The statistics are quite clear about this: In 2002, Americans went to the movies 5.2 times a year; by 2019, that number had shrunk to 3.5 times a year.

The pandemic, of course, devastated the box office. But post-Covid, things are still lousy. Analyst and investor Matthew Ball says the average moviegoer went 2.3 times in 2023 — the same year the industry was crowing about the revival of the box office, led by Barbie and Oppenheimer.

Hollywood has been responding to the decline by raising ticket prices — they shot up an estimated 20% between 2019 and 2022 — and pushing moviegoers who do want to go out to much more expensive theaters, like Imax screens. (I paid $44.76 for the two Furiousa tickets I bought over the weekend at my local Alamo Drafthouse. No complaints, though — I love that chain.)

They should be going the other way, and cutting prices, says Sony movie boss Tom Rothman. "It's fundamental consumer economics: just lower the prices and you'll sell more," he said in a recent interview that's generating lots of buzz in the industry:

There's a value proposition in pricing for two constituencies that are important to us. Kids are trying to make rent, they don't have a lot of disposable income. And the second very significant pricing-sensitive segment is the family audience. It's too dang expensive to take your whole family to the movies right now, even if the kids get in half price or whatever.

That seems pretty reasonable to me. And people obviously are still willing to go to the movies on special occasions — see, again, Barbie and Oppenheimer.

But there's no way around the internet, and the competition it provides for everything, including movie-going.

In 2002, about 7% of Americans had broadband internet at home. Now 80% do. Then factor in the phone — which you're likely reading this story on — and all the things you can watch on that, for free. Fighting that is like fighting gravity.

I don't think movies or movie theaters are going away. (And don't blame me! I think I've been to at least six this year.) But it's time to stop being surprised when movie-goers, year after year, say they'd rather do something else.

• Alexis Ohanian rose from University of Virginia student to Reddit cofounder in a matter of years.
• The entrepreneur is also known for his marriage to tennis superstar Serena Williams.
• Here's how Ohanian rose to the top. 

Alexis Ohanian's path to becoming the "Mayor of the Internet" wasn't a conventional one.

The Baltimore, Maryland-raised Ohanian initially thought he wanted to become a lawyer before an epiphany at a Waffle House made him realize he'd rather be an entrepreneur. He and his college best friend, Steve Huffman, went on to create Reddit, the online community site known as "the front page of the internet." Today, the company is worth billions.

Since selling Reddit in 2006, Ohanian has invested in startups through his venture capital firm, fought against federal bills that would have stifled internet innovation, and married tennis superstar Serena Williams.

Here's how Ohanian got his start and helped build one of the cornerstones of the internet.

Ohanian was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in the Baltimore area

He gave the student address at his high school graduation. "I was not the valedictorian; they just let anyone audition for the speech," Ohanian wrote on YouTube.

He attended the University of Virginia, where he met his Reddit cofounder

While at university, Ohanian met Steve Huffman, who would be his Reddit cofounder.

"I was terrified that no one played video games in college. But when I arrived at my dorm at the University of Virginia, Steve was playing Gran Turismo 2, and I was like, 'Hey, what's up?' We lived together all four years of college, then almost five years after," Ohanian told Inc in 2012.

The summer after their junior year, Ohanian and Huffman came up with the idea for a mobile food ordering company called MyMobileMenu and spent the following year working on it.

They pitched it to Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham, who initially rejected them. The next day, however, Graham called them back and said he would accept them into the startup accelerator but not their business idea. "You guys need to build the front page of the internet," Graham told them, according to Inc.

Ohanian and Huffman built and founded Reddit in just three weeks in 2005

The then-bare-bones site featured just links and some text in its first iteration. The founders soon decided to add the option for comments.

"We knew our business was in our user base, that that was the most important part," Ohanian told Inc.

That same year, however, Ohanian was struck by two tragedies. His then-girlfriend fell from a balcony and went into a coma. She recovered months later.

Around the same time, his mother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She died in 2008, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Ohanian and Huffman sold Reddit to Condé Nast in 2006.

The site had taken off, and its two cofounders decided to sell it to the magazine publisher shortly after launch for an undisclosed amount.

Ohanian has said the sale was between $10 and $20 million, Business Insider previously reported.

Three years after the sale, Ohanian left Reddit, taking a fellowship in Armenia, where his father's family is from. He also helped launch Breadpig, a "geek" marketplace that donates some of its profits, and travel website Hipmunk around this time.

Ohanian waded into internet advocacy in 2010

He became an outspoken opponent of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. He helped organize anti-SOPA protests and said at the time that Congress was going to "obliterate an entire tech industry" if it passed the bill.

Ohanian was called to testify before Congress, but the bill was killed before he could do so.

He later formed the Internet Defense League, an organization that worked to inform and mobilize website users against oppositional legislation, describing the group as a "Bat Signal for the internet" in a comment to Forbes.

By 2015, things had taken a turn for both Reddit and Ohanian and Huffman's friendship

Reddit became an independent subsidiary of Condé Nast's parent company in 2011. But in the following years, the site was overrun by racist trolls and multiple CEOs filtered through.

Ohanian and Huffman also drifted apart. But the former friends came back together in 2015, determined to work on their friendship and help turn around Reddit, the duo told NPR.

That period of time wasn't without controversy, however. Yishan Wong, one of Reddit's former CEOs, has said that Ohanian was behind the decision to fire a popular employee in 2015. The firing caused an uproar that resulted in then-CEO Ellen Pao stepping down.

"When the hate-train started up against Pao, Alexis should have been out front and center saying very clearly 'Ellen Pao did not make this decision, I did,'" Wong wrote on Reddit at the time. "Instead, he just sat back and let her take the heat."

Ohanian co-founded a venture capitalist firm in 2016

The rising tech star started Initialized Capital with Garry Tan that year. The firm prided itself at the time on its investing team, which was 50% female.

That same year, Ohanian met his future wife, tennis superstar Serena Williams

He had previously dated microbiologist Sabriya Strukes, whom he met in college. The couple broke up sometime around 2015, according to Vanity Fair.

Ohanian met Williams in Rome when he sat next to her outside by a hotel pool. She was there to play her first match in the Italian Open, the outlet reported. He was there for a conference.

The couple's first date took place before the French Open in June 2015. According to Vanity Fair, Williams invited Ohanian to Paris to see her play and they ended up walking around Paris for six hours before the tournament began. Ohanian soon became a fixture at Williams' matches, often showing up in the stands to watch her play.

Ohanian told the outlet he was certain he wanted to marry Williams by April 2016.

"I felt like a door had been opened to a person who made me want to be my best self," he said.

Ohanian proposed to Williams in December 2016

He proposed at the same hotel he and Williams had met at in Rome. Williams announced the engagement on Reddit: She had Ohanian draw her a customized version of Reddit's alien logo, "Snoo," and called herself the "future Mrs. Kn0thing," referencing Ohanian's Reddit username.

In early January 2017, Williams and Ohanian found out they were expecting a baby together, right before Williams was scheduled to play in the Australian Open. She went on to win the Australian Open while she was eight weeks pregnant.

The couple welcomed a baby girl in 2017

Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. was born on September 1, 2017.

Two months later, Ohanian and Williams got married at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.

In August 2023, the couple welcomed their second daughter, Adira River Ohanian.

Since the birth of his daughters, Ohanian has become an advocate for paternity leave. In a 2019 New York Times op-ed, he explained why it was so important that he took paid leave following Olympia's birth.

"I took my full 16 weeks and I'm still ambitious and care about my career. Talk to your bosses and tell them I sent you," Ohanian wrote.

Ohanian also started a podcast called "Business Dad," where he interviews other celebrity dads, like "Patriot Act" host Hasan Minhaj and retired NBA star Chris Bosh.

Ohanian stepped down from Reddit's board in June 2020

Amid nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody, Ohanian quit the board of Reddit, calling his resignation "long overdue."

He said his decision was spurred by him being "a father who needs to be able to answer his Black daughter when she asks: 'What did you do?'" He called on Reddit to name a Black board member, which the company did by appointing Michael Seibel.

Ohanian also shared a personal story from before he founded Reddit, saying police found him passed out in his car while drunk and high.

"Because I was white. I walked away + started Reddit, not jail time," Ohanian tweeted. "I'm grateful for that police officer's tolerance with me + disgusted that it's so obviously not (never) been afforded to everyone just because of their race."

Ohanian has continued to keep a foot in the investing world since leaving Reddit

In 2020, he was the lead investor in Angel City FC, a new franchise in the National Women's Soccer League, which began playing in 2022. 

Ohanian ended his partnership at Initialized in June 2020 but announced a new venture capital firm called Seven Seven Six the following year. Forbes reported that the company's debut fund closed at $150 million.

The firm sought to prioritize investing in startups led by underrepresented communities like women and people of color, Seven Seven Six partner Katelin Holloway previously told Business Insider.

By mid-2021, Seven Seven Six made 20 investments in startups like Pearpop — an influencer marketing platform.

Williams reveals she's pregnant at the 2023 Met Gala

Williams, wearing a black Gucci dress and pearls, showed off her baby bump while standing on the red carpet beside Ohanian at the March 2023 Met Gala.

"Was so excited when Anna Wintour invited the 3 of us to the Met Gala," Williams shared in an Instagram caption.

Williams also revealed that she had to keep the pregnancy a secret from her daughter Olympia until the day of the Met Gala.

"Olympia does not know right now that I am pregnant, so the big reveal will be at the Met, and then before we leave, I'll tell Olympia," Williams said in a video clip shared on Instagram "The reason I haven't told her is because she can't keep a secret." 

Ohanian and Williams welcomed their second child in 2023

Ohanian announced the birth of his second daughter, Adira River Ohanian, in an Instagram post in October 2023.

Ohanian called Williams "the GMOAT" — or the greatest mother of all time.

Ohanian added in the post that Williams has "now given me another incomparable gift" and that he will "never forget the moment I introduced [Olympia] to her baby sister."

Ohanian scores a Cybertruck

On November 30, during Tesla's Cybertruck Delivery Event in Texas, Ohanian was the third in line to pick up his futuristic electric truck.

Ohanian later revealed to The Verge newsletter that he was a fan of the car and said that the Cybertruck "handles even better" than his Tesla Model X.

Ohanian also revealed that he enjoys the ample legroom in the car.

"As a big fella, this is the first car that really feels comfortable to me," Ohanian told The Verge.

This article has been updated since its initial 2020 publication.

• Chick-fil-A's fee for a new restaurant is $10,000 – one of the lowest of any major fast-food brand.
• Chick-fil-A restaurants average about $9.4 million in sales annually among non-mall locations.
• Despite the potential success and low startup costs, franchisee restrictions might not be worth it.

Chick-fil-A is among the most successful fast-food chains in the US, with one of the lowest franchise fees of any major fast-food brand.

According to Restaurant Business, the chain booked sales of $22 billion in 2023. That means most locations averaged nearly $9.4 million in sales a year.

"That's more than double a McDonald's, and McDonald's is no slouch," veteran restaurant analyst Mark Kalinowski said of Chick-fil-A's non-mall restaurants in 2023.

By comparison, McDonald's restaurants posted median domestic sales of $3.8 million in 2023, according to the chain's latest franchise disclosure report. 

Despite its success, Chick-fil-A charges a franchise fee of $10,000 to open a new restaurant, and the company told Business Insider it doesn't require candidates to meet a threshold for net worth or liquid assets.

Those fees are cheaper than most other major fast-food chains in the US, including McDonald's, whose operators view Chick-fil-A as its biggest rival.

McDonald's, for example, requires potential franchisees to pay from $1.5 million to $2.6 million in startup costs — including a $45,000 franchise fee, according to the chain's 2024 FDD.

Potential Taco Bell franchisees pay the same $45,000 fee, and startup costs for a traditional restaurant range between $1.6 million and $4 million, according to the chain's 2024 FDD.

Total costs to launch a franchised Chick-fil-A restaurant range from $585,500 to $3.33 million, according to the 2024 FDD documents. In 2023, Chick-fil-A reported a range of $518,385 to $2.8 million, according to 2023 FDD documents. 

Chick-fil-A, however, makes up for the loss of upfront capital investment with other costs to franchisees, such as real estate, restaurant construction, and equipment, which it leases to the franchisee.

"The challenge to becoming a franchisee is never going to be money," a Chick-fil-A spokesperson told Business Insider. "We seek to find business-minded restaurant operators who find great joy in making other people's days."

So what's the catch?

While Chick-fil-A's franchise fee is low, the ongoing fees are higher than those charged by many of its rivals, and they start adding up on day 1.

McDonald's charges an ongoing monthly service fee of up to 5% of gross sales, while Chick-fil-A franchisees pay a "Base Operating Service Fee" of 15% of sales and an additional fee of 50% of net profits.

Both McDonald's and Chick-fil-A charge rent, with Golden Arches owners paying a rate that starts at 8.5% but can be nearly twice as much if McDonald's development and acquisition costs are higher. Chick-fil-A, meanwhile, limits its rent charges to 6% of sales.

Beyond the unusual fee structure, several other items might give a prospective franchisee pause.

For starters, Chick-fil-A prohibits most of its franchisees from opening multiple units, which can limit potential profits. Franchisees must also devote their full time and attention to operating the actual business.

A Chick-fil-A spokesperson told BI in 2023 it selects "a relatively small number of franchisees to operate multiple units."

Franchisees are also prohibited from owning or working in any other fast food business within five miles of their Chick-fil-A location.

The company says this is meant to enable franchisees to be intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of their restaurants, and it encourages franchisees to be actively involved in the communities where they live and work.

"Chick-fil-A operators must be as comfortable rolling up their sleeves in the kitchen as they are shaking hands in the dining room," the spokesperson said.

Another issue that may be of concern regards franchisees' actual control over their business.

Franchisees are business owners by definition, but Chick-fil-A's FDD prevents franchisees from exercising a key benefit of ownership: selling the business.

No transfer or sale of a Chick-fil-A business is allowed, not even family inheritance in the event of death or disability.

Chick-fil-A also reserves the right to terminate any franchisee's agreement without cause with 30 days' notice or with cause for infractions such as subjecting the brand to "scandal," filing for bankruptcy, opening a restaurant on a Sunday or Christmas Day, or if operations are "frustrated" by labor union activity.

The application process

Chick-fil-A's model may be unusual, but it's incredibly popular and competitive. However, it's very selective, and more than 40,000 candidates apply to become a franchisee a year. 

To apply, candidates have to submit a form through the company's website expressing their interest. From those candidates, Chick-fil-A selects between 75 to 80 new franchisees annually.

Applicants do not need previous Chick-fil-A experience.

"More than 40% of our newly selected franchised operators never worked for Chick-fil-A Inc. or at a Chick-fil-A restaurant before applying to become a franchised operator," the company's website said in 2023.

In addition to interviewing the candidates themselves, the company may also interview candidates' friends, family members, and business partners.

Once selected and hired, franchisees must undergo a multi-week program that includes about 160 hours of classroom training before they can open and operate their own restaurant.

Functional or "healthy" drinks claim to calm you down, boost your energy, or improve brain health. Celebrities from Katy Perry to Bella Hadid have embraced them. But are they actually worth it?

• Orcas just want to have fun.
• Orcas have been ramming boats off Spain, Portugal, and Morocco since 2020.
• Scientists now believe it's simply because the orcas are bored and feeling playful. 

Orcas have been causing mayhem off the coasts of Spain, Portugal, and Morocco for the past several years, driving local sailors nuts by ramming and bumping their boats.

But scientists now believe the orcas actually don't have malicious intent — they're just being silly.

A group of over a dozen scientists and orca experts who've been studying the region's orcas for years explained their findings in a report from the International Whaling Commission published Friday.

The Portuguese and Spanish governments commissioned the report in response to a spate of incidents of a small group of orcas around the Iberian Peninsula ramming into — and sometimes sinking — at least 673 boats since 2020, The Washington Post reported.

Despite the damage the orcas have done, scientists believe the orcas are not trying to be aggressive or destructive. Really, they're just bored teenagers looking for a bit of fun.

"The sea is a very boring place for an animal," Renaud de Stephanis, president of marine life preservation organization CIRCE, told USA Today. "Imagine if you're a dog or some other mammal, you can interact with objects around you. But in the sea there's not much for the orcas to interact with, so they play with the rudders."

Scientists believe young juvenile orcas, who tend to be more curious and exploratory, started the trend, which then spread through the population, according to the report.

And orcas, like humans, love following trends.

The highly intelligent and social mammals are known to experience fads among their pods. For example, past orca populations have even gone around wearing dead salmon as hats, for no other apparent reason than everyone else was doing it.

This long series of boat-ramming incidents could be no different.

But why now? Scientists believe it's likely because the tuna population, the Iberian killer whales' primary food source, has dramatically increased in recent years, giving the orcas more time away from hunting, according to the report.

And with all that free time, the apex predators have chosen to have a little fun. But don't worry. Even if an orca does ram and sink your ship, you're probably not in danger. No one has been injured in any of the incidents so far.

• Sam Altman is vowing to give most of his money away.
• The OpenAI CEO and his partner, Oliver Mulherin, recently signed the Giving Pledge.
• Altman appeared on the Forbes and Bloomberg billionaires lists for the first time this year.

Fresh off of hitting billionaire status earlier this year, Sam Altman is vowing to give away most of his wealth.

The OpenAI CEO and his partner, Oliver Mulherin, recently signed the Giving Pledge.

"We would not be making this pledge if it weren't for the hard work, brilliance, generosity, and dedication to improve the world of many people that built the scaffolding of society that let us get here," they wrote of their commitment in an update to the Giving Pledge's website on Tuesday. "There is nothing we can do except feel immense gratitude and commit to pay it forward, and do what we can to build the scaffolding up a little higher."

They will focus their giving on "supporting technology that helps create abundance for people, so that they can then build the scaffolding even higher," they continued.

Created in 2010 by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett, the pledge asks the world's wealthiest to "publicly commit to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropy either during their lifetimes or in their wills."

This is a developing post…

• Donald Trump is backing a primary challenger to Rep. Bob Good of Virginia.
• The former president has targeted lawmakers like Good who backed Ron DeSantis over him.
• Good has tried to appear close to Trump in recent weeks.

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed a primary challenger to Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, his biggest shot yet at a lawmaker who crossed him during the GOP presidential primary.

"Bob Good is BAD FOR VIRGINIA, AND BAD FOR THE USA. He turned his back on our incredible movement, and was constantly attacking and fighting me until recently, when he gave a warm and 'loving' Endorsement – But really, it was too late," Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media network.

Good, who leads the far-right House Freedom Caucus, was one of the few members of Congress to endorse Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis was once Trump's best-positioned primary foe, but his campaign struggled to live up to its early expectations. DeSantis and Good later endorsed Trump, who will formally receive the GOP's presidential nomination in July.

Good will face state Sen. John McGuire in a closely-watched primary on June 18.

"Thank you President Trump for endorsing my campaign for Congress!" McGuire wrote on X in response. "Together we will fight for We the People and Save America. We can do better than Good."

Before Trump endorsed McGuire, Good had gone to great lengths to appear close to the former president. Good was one of a string of House Republicans who went to New York City to denounce Trump's Manhattan criminal trial. Good's campaign website also touts Trump's 2022 endorsement of him.

Trump isn't the only top Republican Good has crossed. The two-term lawmaker supported Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz's effort to remove then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy from power. McCarthy allies have supported a revenge tour of their own against the eight Republicans who joined with Democrats to force the Californian's historic ouster.

Even some of Good's GOP colleagues are supporting McGuire, a rare step that underlines the frustration some Republicans have for Good. Good is also supporting a primary challenger to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas.

Trump is always taking names.

Trump has tried to seem magnanimous at times when discussing DeSantis, who is reportedly trying to help fundraise for the former president's campaign. But it's clear Trump is well aware of those who crossed him.

The former president previously lashed out at Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, another conservative Republican who backed DeSantis. But Trump called for a primary challenger to Roy after the filing deadline had passed.

Trump's most successful revenge tour has been against the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him for inciting the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Of those 10, only two remain in the House. Last month, Trump endorsed a primary challenger to one of those two, Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington.

• Target came under fire last year when conservative groups attacked the company's Pride collection.
• In response to protests, the retailer pulled merch and shrunk in-store displays.
• Some on Target's Pride Council and past vendors say the company has done little to rebuild its relationship with the LGBTQ+ community.

On Tuesday, May 14th, members of Target's LGBTQ+ employee resource group logged on for a much-anticipated virtual meeting to preview the 2024 Pride collection, two council members told Business Insider.

A few days before that meeting, following the news that only a fraction of stores would be carrying Pride merchandise this year, VP of Brand Management Carlos Saavedra promised to "share all the details" about the celebration in an internal preview.

The two council members said that in prior years, members of the 3,700-person group, known internally as the Pride+ Council, were able to participate in selecting vendors and products to feature in the collection.

Pride+ Council members joined the May 14 meeting to find that only presenters could speak, comments were disabled, and no products were shown, the two council sources told BI.

It's a far cry from just over a year ago, the members said, when Target was doing something that few large companies had ever done: embracing both halves of the LGBTQ+ acronym.

For two years in a row, the company had offered a line of functional garments and a range of apparel and accessories boasting slogans that acknowledged and celebrated transgender and nonbinary members of the community.

By this time last year, Pride products had already been on sale online for weeks by mid-May, and each of the retailer's nearly 2,000 US stores had displays near their front entrances.

This year, the online collection that once boasted over 2,600 items now consists of several dozen items — some rainbow-themed apparel and accessories, a few alcoholic drinks, pet gear, and a cutting board emblazoned with "It's Giving Charcuterie."

Target declined to address specific questions when contacted by Business Insider and instead referred to its previous statement on the Pride 2024 collection.

"We have long offered benefits and resources for the community, and we will have internal programs to celebrate Pride 2024," the statement said. "Additionally, we will offer a collection of products for Pride, including adult apparel, home products, food and beverage, which has been curated based on guest insights and consumer research."

At a time of the year when corporations are often accused of "rainbow washing" for Pride month in June, members of the LGBTQ+ community held Target up as an example of what true ally-ship could look like.

But late last May, conservative protesters took aim at Target's Pride collection, falsely claiming the merchandise was "Satanic" and sexualized minors.

In response to what it said was a mounting security threat, the retailer pulled merch and shrunk in-store displays, alienating some of its LGBTQ+ employees, customers, and vendor partners in the process.

Even as conservative groups claimed victory, the backlash continued in the form of a shareholder lawsuit and related shareholder proposal arguing that the company's diversity initiatives are harmful to shareholder value.

Target says it rejects those assertions and is defending itself in court.

However, the two Pride Council members and multiple LGBTQ+ vendors who worked on past Pride collections told BI they feel the company hasn't done enough to rebuild its relationship with its LGBTQ+ partners over the past year.

Erik Carnell, the trans designer whose Target merchandise was pulled due to Satanic references elsewhere in his portfolio, told BI the company declined to provide him an explanation about its decision beyond what was included in its public statements, and he hasn't heard from them since.

"I don't expect to hear from them again," he said.

"I don't doubt that there are people working high up in Target who do genuinely care about or are part of the LGBT community and did honestly want to support the trans community, but these people aren't necessarily responsible for certain decisions," he continued. "At the end of the day, the pink dollar isn't quite as strong as the Christian Right dollar."

Humankind, the trans-friendly swimwear brand that was at the center of the firestorm, first began working with Target in 2021 in preparation for the 2022 Pride collection, according to founder Hayley Marzullo.

After Humankind products were pulled from shelves, a Target representative did reach out to Marzullo, according to emails seen by BI.

"We understand this has an impact to you and your team and wanted to check in to see how you're doing and if there are any questions you might have," the Target representative said.

The emails show that Target and Marzullo discussed a year-round assortment of gender-inclusive apparel in partnership with Humankind, but Marzullo told BI the idea eventually stalled.

She said she eventually learned through a non-Target source that Humankind was not going to be part of this year's June collection.

"Everything was set to continue to expand," Marzullo said. "We spent time and energy developing new products and new colors, only to be cut."

Leslie Garrard, the CEO of TomboyX, said her company was invited to sell through the Target.com marketplace after a successful 2022 in-store collaboration.

The brand still has over 60 items listed online — not in stores — but Garrard told BI she has noticed some items delisted in recent weeks, including a Pride rainbow design and a tucking underwear bottom. TomboyX fulfills all orders itself as Target does not generally stock or ship marketplace products.

"If you're taking your Pride assortment and you're taking out a ton of apparel, or you're just associating Pride with cake mixes, tablecloths, and dog leashes, you're not really showing up for your community," Garrard said.

One of the employees involved in the Pride Council told BI that a lot of LGBTQ+ people, herself included, joined Target specifically because of its stated support for trans and queer rights.

Target's handling of Pride this year so far tells her that "they are here for the L, G, and B, but not the T, Q, I, A, and plus," she said. "This feels very much like a betrayal."

• There's no love lost between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. 
• The CEOs have been feuding since 2016, when a SpaceX explosion destroyed a Facebook satellite.
• Here's a history of their feud.

For nearly eight years, two of tech's biggest names — Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — have been caught up in a feud, clashing over topics like artificial intelligence and rockets.

The two men have been griping about each other behind closed doors for years, according to The Wall Street Journal. But the tech moguls haven't exactly kept their rivalry a secret from the public, either.

When a rocket from Musk's SpaceX exploded and destroyed a satellite from Zuckerberg's Facebook in 2016, Zuckerberg issued a heated statement, saying he was "deeply disappointed" about SpaceX's failure. And when Facebook became embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Musk publicly deleted his companies' Facebook pages, tweeting that the company gave him "the willies."

In June 2023, the two men threatened to make their fight physical and face each other in a cage match.

The two billionaires are among the richest people on the planet, placing them in an elite circle, even by Silicon Valley standards. Even though both work in artificial intelligence and social media, and their companies have partnered in the past, it seems there's no love lost between Musk and Zuckerberg.

Here's where their feud began and everything that's happened since.

The Musk-Zuckerberg feud dates back to at least 2016, when a SpaceX rocket explosion destroyed a Facebook satellite.

In September 2016, SpaceX was testing its Falcon 9 rocket at a launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Shortly after 9 a.m. the rocket exploded, destroying Facebook's AMOS-6 satellite, which was supposed to ride the rocket into space.

The satellite was part of Facebook's Internet.org project to deliver internet connectivity to the developing world, and it would have been Facebook's first satellite in orbit.

Zuckerberg seemed openly frustrated that the launch failed, writing on Facebook that he was "deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent."

Two years later, Musk addressed the failed launch in a post on Twitter to the reporter Kerry Flynn.

"Yeah, my fault for being an idiot," Musk said. "We did give them a free launch to make up for it, and I think they had some insurance."

In 2017, Zuckerberg criticized Musk's attitude toward artificial intelligence, which seemed to get a rise out of Musk.

During a Facebook Live broadcast, a viewer asked Zuckerberg for his thoughts on Musk's anxieties around AI.

"I have pretty strong opinions on this," Zuckerberg said. "With AI especially, I'm really optimistic, and I think that people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios … I don't understand it. It's really negative, and in some ways, I actually think it's pretty irresponsible."

Musk, who has repeatedly called for regulation and caution when it comes to new AI technology, shot back on Twitter.

"I've talked to Mark about this," he said in response to a tweet about Zuckerberg's comments. "His understanding of the subject is limited."

In 2018, following Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, Musk made a public show of deleting SpaceX and Tesla's Facebook pages.

After the WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton tweeted, "It is time. #deletefacebook," Musk responded, "What's Facebook?"

A fan responded to Musk's tweet asking whether he'd delete the SpaceX Facebook page, to which Musk responded, "I didn't realize there was one. Will do."

After another fan pointed out that Tesla had a Facebook page too, Musk tweeted that it "looks lame anyway."

Soon after, both the SpaceX and Tesla pages disappeared from Facebook. Musk said it wasn't a "political statement" and that he just found Facebook unsettling.

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2018

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Musk continued his campaign against Facebook in early 2020.

 

In response to a tweet from the actor Sacha Baron Cohen, which called for more regulation of Facebook, Musk urged people once again to delete the app.

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2020

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Following the riot at the US Capitol in 2021, Musk used Twitter to share memes linking the riots to Facebook.

On the evening of the rampage in Washington, Musk tweeted, "This is called the domino effect," along with an image of dominoes, with the first one labeled "a website to rate women on campus," a reference to Facebook's inception at Harvard University. The last domino referenced the rioters.

Musk also criticized Facebook's data-sharing practices, tweeting another meme about Facebook that mentioned the company "spying" on users following the announcement by Facebook-owned WhatsApp that it would start forcing users to share their personal data with the platform.

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021

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Musk tweeted that people should "use Signal," an encrypted messaging app. His tweet was retweeted by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, another tech executive who has sparred with Zuckerberg.

Last year, Musk criticized Zuckerberg's ironclad control of Meta.

The Tesla CEO compared Zuckerberg's control of Meta to a monarchy during an interview at the TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Facebook's parent company changed its name to Meta in October 2021.)

The interviewer, Chris Anderson, asked Musk whether his status as the richest man and one of Twitter's top influencers could pose a conflict of interest if he bought the platform. Musk used the opportunity to take a swipe at his rival.  

"As for media sort of ownership, I mean, you've got Mark Zuckerberg owning Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp, and with a share ownership structure that will have Mark Zuckerberg the 14th still controlling those entities," Musk said. 

He went on to say that he "won't have that at Twitter."

Tensions appeared to get even higher between the two CEOs after Musk bought Twitter.

In December, Meta first brainstormed ideas for a Twitter competitor in order to capitalize on  Musk's chaotic Twitter takeover, according to a report from The New York Times. The company confirmed to Platformer in March that it's working on its own text-based social network, codenamed "Project 92."

Earlier this month, Meta's chief product officer, Chris Cox, appeared to mock Musk and Twitter by saying in an all-hands meeting that it the site will be "a platform that is sanely run."

Musk hasn't taken kindly to the news that Zuckerberg is creating an X competitor.

The billionaire taunted Zuckerberg on X, formerly Twitter, about his rival text-based social media platform.

"I'm sure Earth can't wait to be exclusively under Zuck's thumb with no other options," Musk posted in June.

Later writing: "Zuck my" with a tongue emoji.

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023

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Zuckerberg offered some rare praise for Musk and his plans for X in June 2023.

On an episode of "The Lex Fridman Podcast," the Meta CEO praised Musk's "push early on to make Twitter a lot leaner."

"I think that those were generally good changes," Zuckerberg said on the podcast.

When the Tesla CEO took over X, he more than halved the company's workforce. Zuckerberg has taken similar cost cutting measures at Meta, initiating a series of layoffs and dubbing 2023 the "year of efficiency."

 

The two men have reportedly been grumbling about each other in private for years.

People who have heard each man's private comments about the feud told The Wall Street Journal in a report published last June that Zuckerberg had long yearned for the public recognition Musk has received over the years as a tech pioneer and that Musk has fretted over Zuckerberg's early success with Facebook.

The two men appeared to agree to settle some of their differences in a cage match last June.

Last June, Musk said he'd be "up for a cage match" with Zuckerberg. 

The X owner brought up the idea after X users cautioned him to be careful dissing Zuckerberg since he knows jiu-jitsu.

It's unclear whether Musk was joking about the offer to fight the Meta CEO in a cage match. He said via X, "If this is real, I will do it," but later appeared to poke fun at his own fighting skills.

Zuckerberg appears to be taking the idea of a match seriously. After Musk first posted on X that he would be  "up for a cage fight," the Meta CEO posted a screenshot of the post on Instagram with the words "Send me location," and a Meta spokesperson later told The Verge that Zuckerberg is not joking about the offer.

Only time will tell if the two CEOs will duke it out in person.

Some people have already begun placing odds on the fight. Business Insider's Hasan Chowdhury reported that Musk's chances of beating Zuckerberg are slim. 39-year-old Zuckerberg has been trained in MMA fighting and even won some medals at a jiu-jitsu competition in May 2023.

Zuckerberg said he was ready to fight since the day Musk challenged him.

Zuckerberg said in a Threads post in August 2023 that he was "ready to fight since the day Elon challenged" him. 

"If he ever agrees on an actual date, you'll hear it from me," Zuckerberg said in the post. "Until then, please assume anything he says has not been agreed on."

Musk posted on X two days later that "Zuck is a chicken."

"He can't eat at chic fil a because that would be cannibalism," he wrote in a separate post on the same day.

 

A day after Zuckerberg's 40th birthday, Musk revived the cage-match proposal in a post on X.

Musk's gift to Zuckerberg for his 40th birthday was a challenge to fight him, once again.

"If only Zuckerberg were as tough (sigh). I've offered to fight him any place, any time, any rules, but all I hear is crickets," Musk said in an X post on May 15.

Musk's post was in response to a satirical news story about a face-off between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Meta and xAI are now competing against each other to partner with Character.AI

Character.AI is a platform with AI celebrity personas and characters that act as chatbots. Meta has already added a similar feature to its platforms, with celebrity chatbots voiced by big names like Kendall Jenner and MrBeast available.

The Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup was valued at $1 billion last year and according to a Financial Times report from May 24, Meta and xAI have held exploratory talks with Character.AI about working together. No deal has been reached yet with either company, the report said. 

Both companies are heavily investing in AI as the race to scale capabilities heats up. Both Meta and X offer AI chatbots on their social media platforms. 

Zuckerberg has expressed plans to spend "aggressively" on AI and said Meta's mission is to build artificial general intelligence, a level of AI that could outperform humans. 

Meanwhile, xAI announced on May 26 that it raised $6 billion in funding. Recent reports also indicate Musk is planning to build a supercomputer, the "gigafactory of compute," to train the latest version of Grok.