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

31–40 of 102 posts

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

#31

Post by clouddrover »

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…

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

If you value free speech then you don't want Musk to run Twitter. Musk does not believe in free speech:

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-04-20/news-analy...

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-12-musk-free-speech-absolut...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/15/twitter-s...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/07/elon-m...

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

#32

Post by strangesmells02 »

That's the cost of free speech apparently.

Elon's cause is more noble than sheer capitalism.

Advertisers don't want to be on a platform that allows honest, open communication. A sterile non-controversial platform is much safer for them.

At some point as our rights and our freedoms in this country slowly erode, we're going to be grateful to have Twitter and to Elon Musk for being one of the last platforms to put our freedoms over sheer capitalism.

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

#33

Post by didibus »

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…

You don't truly believe Twitter has become any better at free speech than it was before do you? Cause that's foolish. There's tons of bans and blocks, and there's still bias in the algorithms for promoting tweets.

The only change is that what gets censored is now more aligned with Musk's own interests. That's all.

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

#34

Post by KMag »

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.

I'm not an accountant, but doesn't he need to realize investment losses in order to write them off? Capital expenses can be depreciated for tax write-offs, but I wasn't aware that corporate investments could be marked to market for write-offs.

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

#36

Post by ars »

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.

That's not how tax write offs work.

You can write that off against profits, and save around 20% - but you still lost 80% of the money.

So what would be the purpose of tanking it on purpose? He could just send the US Treasury the money for less trouble.

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

#37

Post by omarfarooq »

silverbax88 wrote: post #19
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.

> 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.

So why did you pay $100,000?

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

#38

Post by sdfghswe »

candiddevmike wrote: post #15
wernercd wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Don't you know, he's a free speech absolutist.

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

#39

Post by nova22033 »

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCP27_vquxQ

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

#40

Post by qotgalaxy »

strangesmells02 wrote: post #32

That's the cost of free speech apparently. Elon's cause is more noble than sheer capitalism. Advertisers don't want to be on a platform that allows honest, open communication. A sterile non-controversial platform is much safer for them. At some point as our rights and our freedoms in this country slowly erode, we're going to be grateful to have Twitter and to Elon Musk for being one of the last platforms to put our f…

[dead]
Post reply on HN