Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 102 posts

Re: X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

#11

Post by arnvald »

I’m quite surprised it’s dropped “only” by 55%.

Musk made the offer just before a big drop in valuation of tech companies. Even if Twitter revenue remained stable it probably wouldn’t be worth $44B Musk paid.

With a drop in usage, drop in ads, controversy around the bots, misinformation, failure of Twitter Blue, I would expect that the actual value is quite below the said $19B.

Maybe the cost saving measures partially offset the drop in revenue? They crippled functionality for guest users quite a lot (I’m not logged in on my work laptop and I can’t see quote tweets nor replies), their workforce is 5x smaller, it seems their costs are way lower than before.

Re: X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

#12

Post by wernercd »

gumballindie wrote: post #3
clouddrover wrote: post #2

> “For people that don’t see our vision yet, people that don’t see what’s happening here at X, stop giving any of that oxygen,” she said. “Don’t pay attention to it.” Does X pay its rent yet? Is that part of the Vision?

Elon Musk could have let everyone work from home and save money on rent but he had to demand rto. Oh uh. Hope he fails soon, so others can learn.

Took Elon 17 years to get Tesla profitable... why do you think he'd give up in a year?

The largest problem with businesses these days is the "we must make profit next quarter" mindset and the "I hope he fails" is either that - or a pocket dislike of free speech. Each option is questionable in it's own right.

I hope Elon succeeds. Not because I agree with everything he says or does but because I value free speech.

“I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it” -Voltaire

Re: X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

#13

Post by c420 »

XorNot wrote: post #8
ilamont wrote: post #6

From a separate NYT article: Last year, Twitter’s interest expense was about $50 million. With the new debt taken on in the deal, that will now balloon to about $1 billion a year. Yet the company’s operations last year generated about $630 million in cash flow to meet its financial obligations. That means that Twitter is generating less money per year than what it owes its lenders. The company also does not appear to…

Yeah there's no way it's worth $19 billion. With its current expenses you can just sit back and wait for bankruptcy proceedings to pick it up cheap if you wanted it.

Was that his 4D chess plan all along?

Re: X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

#14

Post by kibwen »

seydor wrote: post #4

and how much is twitter worth

The cost of a therapist is in the ballpark of $100/hour, and Twitter is essentially anti-therapy in that one relieves psychological trauma and the other inflicts it, so to properly evaluate the profitablity of Twitter we must take into account that it should be paying its users $100/hour to use it.

Re: X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

#15

Post by candiddevmike »

wernercd wrote: post #12
gumballindie wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon Musk could have let everyone work from home and save money on rent but he had to demand rto. Oh uh. Hope he fails soon, so others can learn.

Took Elon 17 years to get Tesla profitable... why do you think he'd give up in a year? The largest problem with businesses these days is the "we must make profit next quarter" mindset and the "I hope he fails" is either that - or a pocket dislike of free speech. Each option is questionable in it's own right. I hope Elon succeeds. Not because I agree with everything he says or does but because I value free speech. “I…

What does free speech have to do with Twitter?

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/rcna81961

Re: X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

#16

Post by thghtihadanacct »

kevmo wrote: post #7

$19B seems high.

But $26B seems like a pretty good tax write off. Seriously tho, How much of this drop (adjustment to reality) could Musk potentially write off on taxes, etc? Especially when it was pretty obvious he tanked it on purpose.

Re: X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

#18

Post by asylteltine »

thghtihadanacct wrote: post #16
kevmo wrote: post #7

$19B seems high.

But $26B seems like a pretty good tax write off. Seriously tho, How much of this drop (adjustment to reality) could Musk potentially write off on taxes, etc? Especially when it was pretty obvious he tanked it on purpose.

Can you write off this stuff? You can only personally write if like 3k of loses per year

Re: X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

#19

Post by silverbax88 »

arnvald wrote: post #11

I’m quite surprised it’s dropped “only” by 55%. Musk made the offer just before a big drop in valuation of tech companies. Even if Twitter revenue remained stable it probably wouldn’t be worth $44B Musk paid. With a drop in usage, drop in ads, controversy around the bots, misinformation, failure of Twitter Blue, I would expect that the actual value is quite below the said $19B. Maybe the cost saving measures partiall…

Agreed.

It wasn't worth $44B when he bought it, so I'm not sure why the NY Times would even use that number in any way. If I pay someone $100,000 for a stick they found on the side of the road, it doesn't make that stick worth $100k.

I doubt Twitter was worth $19B even before Musk overpaid for it. It was a 15 year old company that couldn't make money.

Re: X says it is worth $19B, down from $44B last year

#20

Post by TylerE »

c420 wrote: post #13
XorNot wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah there's no way it's worth $19 billion. With its current expenses you can just sit back and wait for bankruptcy proceedings to pick it up cheap if you wanted it.

Was that his 4D chess plan all along?

That doesn’t work so well when you’re the seller.
Post reply on HN