Boston home-security provider SimpliSafe sold to another private equity firm

One of downtown Boston's biggest tech companies has been sold by one private equity firm to another. Chicago-based GTCR has reached a deal to acquire SimpliSafe, based at 100 Summer St., from Hellman & Friedman, which has owned the home-security system maker for seven years. Chief executive Christian Cerda will remain in charge, and SimpliSafe founders Chad and Eleanor Laurans will remain investors and board members. SimpliSafe bills itself as the third-largest provider of residential security systems in the US, and a pioneer of do-it-yourself home security devices. SimpliSafe employs about 600 people in Boston, and around 1,200 people across its locations, which include offices and a monitoring center in Virginia and an office in Manchester, England. The financial terms of the sale, announced on Monday, were not disclosed. The deal, expected to close at the end of 2025, marks GTCR's fifth investment in the security alarm industry. -- JON CHESTO

WALL STREET

Alphabet Inc. on Monday joined an elite group of companies valued at more than $3 trillion, the latest sign of improving investor sentiment toward the Google parent. Shares rose 4.5 percent to $251.61, resulting in a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion. The stock has soared more than 70 percent from its April low, adding roughly $1.2 trillion in value over that span. Alphabet joins a short list of companies valued at more than $3 trillion, with Nvidia Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. the only other publicly traded stocks above that level. The stock's most recent leg higher was fueled by a long-awaited antitrust ruling that avoided the most punitive measures sought by regulators, including the sale of Alphabet's Chrome browser. The ruling came in the wake of Alphabet's second-quarter earnings, which showed that demand for artificial intelligence products is lifting sales. -- BLOOMBERG NEWS

MEDIA

Karen Attiah, an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, said she was fired last week after posting on social media about gun violence and "racial double standards" following the assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. In a post on Substack announcing her firing, Attiah cited several social media posts made in the wake of Kirk's death that expressed antipathy toward political violence and frustration with the lack of effort to curb gun violence. In one post, she criticized inaction from "white America," which she said "is not going to do what it needs to do to get rid of guns in their country." She wrote that the Post said her social media posts were "unacceptable," "gross misconduct" and endangered "the physical safety of colleagues," charges she rejects. A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment. The organization's policies and standards say that Post employees are expected to use social media responsibly and civilly, and to treat people with respect. -- NEW YORK TIMES

FINANCE

Elon Musk has bought around $1 billion worth of Tesla stock, his first such purchase in more than five years, as the company's board promoted a new compensation plan that could grant him nearly $1 trillion if he meets certain performance targets. The acquisition, made through a revocable trust on Sept. 12, was disclosed in regulatory filling on Monday, just a couple of days after the company's board chair, Robyn Denholm, defended the proposed pay plan. She told The New York Times that Musk could achieve world-changing technology if motivated by seemingly impossible goals. The purchase appeared to please investors. Tesla's stock rose about 3.6 percent in trading on Monday. Tesla, which makes electric vehicles and battery storage systems, has struggled in recent quarters. Sales of its cars have been falling around the world and will likely take another dive in the last three months of the year after a tax credit for EV purchases in the United States expires at the end of September. -- NEW YORK TIMES

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Businesses are overwhelmingly relying on Anthropic's artificial intelligence software to automate rather than collaborate on work, according to a new report from the OpenAI rival, adding to the risk that AI will upend livelihoods. More than three quarters (77 percent) of companies' usage of Anthropic's Claude AI software involved automation patterns, often including "full task delegation," according to a research report the startup released on Monday. The finding was based on an analysis of traffic from Anthropic's application programming interface, which is used by developers and businesses. Anthropic is one of the leading firms selling AI tools to companies with the goal of helping to speed up software development, research and writing, among other tasks. But the technology has sparked concerns about potential mass layoffs and worker displacement - a risk Anthropic also highlights in the report. -- BLOOMBERG NEWS

REGULATION

President Trump on Monday proposed to reduce the frequency that public companies report financial information to their investors and the public, suggesting cutting requirements in half by going to two, instead of four, reports a year. "This will save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Public companies in the United States have been required to publish quarterly reports for more than 50 years. It's not the first time Trump has raised the idea. During his first term, he suggested moving to semiannual instead of quarterly reports, and the Securities and Exchange Commission explored the issue but never progressed to the point of changing the rules. Trump's proposal would need the approval of securities regulators. Trump has made deregulation a cornerstone of his presidency, already moving to reduce the amount of information companies are required to report to investors, regulators and the public. -- NEW YORK TIMES

SHIPPING

Long-term unemployment at post-pandemic high, straining workers and economy - The Boston Globe