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

nytimes.com

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

#61

Post by clouddrover »

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…

> 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.

Musk isn't interested in your rights or freedoms:

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

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

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

#62

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

kalupa wrote: post #51
strangesmells02 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't pay 44 billion for Twitter. He paid 44 billion to restore free speech. I think his cause is more noble than sheer capitalism Edit: down vote and hate all you want... mark my words .. Elon is going to go down in history as a visionary, a hero and a champion of free speech. a bunch of angry ex-twitter employees on hacker news is not an accurate representation of reality

lol, you can't be serious ...

I think they are, which really speaks to the information asymmetry people face in their various circles.

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

#63

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

sdfghswe wrote: post #38
candiddevmike wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Unless you're posting publicly available information about flights. Then that crosses the line.

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

#64

Post by aranchelk »

mikeyouse wrote: post #28
silverbax88 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A stick that someone paid $100k for is absolutely a stick worth $100k - what people are willing to pay for things is how we assign them value. Twitter's stock was trading at ~$45/share before any rumors of acquisition - so somewhere around $35B - they'd made roughly $1B in net income in the year prior to the buyout. This meme about them "not making money" is so silly. Aside from a one-time settlement in 2020, Twitter…

You could make that argument except this is a stick someone said he’d pay $100k for to get attention, then the courts forced him follow through. Slightly different.

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

#65

Post by stass »

sdfghswe wrote: post #52
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…

Can you give us an example of things that can't be said anywhere else but twitter?

From the recent stuff, remember the lab leak theory where any mentions of which were getting removed from Twitter, Facebook and Youtube, including the scientific papers that looked into it?

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

#66

Post by UncleOxidant »

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…

Nah, advertisers (and people as it turns out) don't want to be on a toxic platform where they're constantly harassed. Advertisers don't want to be seen as endorsing the cesspool. This isn't about free speech, it's about being free from constant harassment and people not wanting to swim in the sewer. Musk has turned xitter into 4chan: sure teenage boys like that kind of thing, but pretty much everyone else finds it unpleasant which is why they're leaving.

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

#68

Post by rez9x »

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

It's an opinion article, so I wasn't expecting much, but it seems a little disingenuous.

That said, an open-source platform more focused on decentralization would be a better solution, but nothing will be perfect while power and wealth are so centralized. I hope Damus is able to grow, but it's just not easy access enough as it is.

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

#69

Post by wredue »

mikeyouse wrote: post #28
silverbax88 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A stick that someone paid $100k for is absolutely a stick worth $100k - what people are willing to pay for things is how we assign them value. Twitter's stock was trading at ~$45/share before any rumors of acquisition - so somewhere around $35B - they'd made roughly $1B in net income in the year prior to the buyout. This meme about them "not making money" is so silly. Aside from a one-time settlement in 2020, Twitter…

>twitters stock was trading for $45 a charge before any rumor of acquisition

What is this, alternate reality land? It was trading for $16 (albeit this was a low point) a share when Musk started his pump and dump scheme, which rocketed the value to 45 a share, which is the point that Musk decided he doesn’t want it and also began proceedings to dump stock.

There were ATH in the $45 range, but TWTR was on a clear downward trend.

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

#70

Post by mminer237 »

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.

Until it's realized, nothing. If he sold Twitter tomorrow, he could take the $25 billion loss and not pay taxes on that much of his next capital gains, essentially saving him $5 billion, for a net loss of only $20 billion.
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