UPDATE: Nov. 3, 2017, 2:18 p.m. EDT Gothamist, DNAinfo, and other sister sites were put back online on Friday afternoon.

UPDATE: Nov. 3, 2017, 10:03 a.m. EDT Quartz reports that Gothamist's chief technical officer has said Gothamist's archives were not deleted, and there is a good chance they will be restored.

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.

"This is a direct retaliation for unionizing," former DNAinfo reporter Noah Hurowitz told Mashable. "We stood tall, and they fucked us."

Later, he said DNAinfo is the "most badass, toughest group of people I've ever worked with, and we're not gonna run away."

When the employees unionized around a week ago, DNAinfo reporter Katie Honan told The New York Times that “No one’s trying to bankrupt anybody." She added, "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.

Gothamist and DNAinfo have been shut down. Statement here: pic.twitter.com/53SHJxzpYY — Kim Bhasin (@KimBhasin) November 2, 2017

The archives for DNAinfo, Gothamist, and other Ricketts-owned sites were inaccessible, and those two sites and all links redirected to Ricketts's statement. In that statement, Ricketts wrote that he believes neighborhood storytelling "remains essential." Just not, evidently, essential enough for him to fund.

Ricketts deleting the DNAInfo and Gothamist archives seems like pure anti-union spite. — Matt Taylor (@matthewt_ny) November 2, 2017

shutting down gothamist and DNAinfo entirely — without even leaving up an archive — is jaw-droppingly vindictive — Max Read (@max_read) November 2, 2017

DNAinfo broke quite a few stories about police brutality. Not only shutting them down, but wiping their archive, is a political act. — Vann R. Newkirk II (@fivefifths) November 2, 2017

Ricketts, a donor to President Donald Trump, had long been the CEO of DNAinfo, but acquired Gothamist and its sister sites in other cities back in March. Around the time of acquisition, Gothamist and Chicagoist deleted negative coverage of Ricketts.

Journalists — those who worked there and many others — were stunned, saddened, and thankful for what the websites had meant to themselves and the communities they'd covered.

Thank you all, especially Queens. This job meant the world to me. I hope I did you all proud. — katie honan (@katie_honan) November 2, 2017

Shellshocked. Yesterday was, ironically, my exact 5 year anniversary with @DNAinfoNY. I loved reporting on this city and the amazing people in it. Hope to keep doing. Thanks for the kind words & keep supporting local news. — Jeanmarie Evelly (@JeanmarieEvelly) November 2, 2017

I just walked back from the bathroom to find out that everyone at @Gothamist and @DNAinfoNY has been laid off — Christopher Robbins (@ChristRobbins) November 2, 2017

every writer and editor and Gothamist and DNAinfo is worth 1000x their evil management — Kelly Weill (@KELLYWEILL) November 2, 2017

Thank you for reading. — Aidan Gardiner (@AidanGardiner) November 2, 2017

What else is there to say but that.

UPDATE Nov. 2, 6:17 p.m. PT: A new site went up after the Gothamist/DNAinfo announcement: rickettsist.com.

The parody site looks like the now-defunct Gothamist, SFist, LAist, and other local news sites, but features Ricketts. A short intro article says this is "the only site where you can get up-to-date news and information about Joe Ricketts, the owner of some news sites that you can’t access anymore!"