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Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

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Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#301

Post by mooreds »

skohan wrote: post #174
mooreds wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I think he understands that, as indicated by https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585619322239561728 That doesn't sound like someone burning Twitter to the ground. Also, many are acting like Musk has free rein in running the company. Yes and no. Beyond needing employees to actually run the thing, he also has loans to pay back ($13B!) and investors to maintain good relationships with. More on that here: https…

It's a good sentiment, but he kind of has to say that right? He just spent $44B taking this company private, if advertisers flee and it starts running at a substantial loss, it could mean financial ruin for him

Sure, I agree, he has to say that right now. But I think he has to follow through and keep the advertisers happy.

This isn't Bezos buying the Post outright and running it as a vanity project, Musk has stakeholders.

What you predict (financial ruin) will probably happen if he doesn't do that.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#302

Post by _fat_santa »

thethethethe wrote: post #156

If I was working at Twitter right now I would be looking for a different job, regardless of what I think of Elon's politics/motives. The talk of layoffs and major policy changes creates massive uncertainty and I don't think I'd risk sticking out the transition. I bet many inside the company feel the same. This begs the question: If there is a major exodus, will it even matter? And, if it does, how will the problems m…

Based on everything I read so far the plan seems to be to make Twitter a much smaller company by headcount so they could sustain themselves primarily through their users rather than advertisers.

My guess is Elon is restructuring the company so it's not beholden to advertisers. He knows that Twitter is going to always be inherently controversial and he wants to structure their revenue so they aren't always having to react to every new controversy. All the social media giants seem to be very reactionary to any controversy, and I think that's because any time a new controversy comes up they are scrambling to make sure they don't loose their advertisers. If your revenue is coming from the users who know what they are signing up for, you can weather those controversies much better without having to take any reactionary measures.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#303

Post by AlbertCory »

thethethethe wrote: post #156

If I was working at Twitter right now I would be looking for a different job, regardless of what I think of Elon's politics/motives. The talk of layoffs and major policy changes creates massive uncertainty and I don't think I'd risk sticking out the transition. I bet many inside the company feel the same. This begs the question: If there is a major exodus, will it even matter? And, if it does, how will the problems m…

As I indicated in my post https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/should-elon-lay-off-all-...:

Twitter spends more on R&D as a percentage of sales than 5 other large tech companies, even Facebook, and moreover, the percentage is increasing. Where is this "innovation"?

It's not a new platform. Its market is, arguably, saturated; I don't see a "next billion users" (as they say at Google) coming from anywhere.

So the answer to "If there is a major exodus, will it even matter?" is pretty clear: No, as long as it's not the operations people.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#304

Post by brigandish »

Kye wrote: post #252
mooreds wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I think he understands that, as indicated by https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585619322239561728 That doesn't sound like someone burning Twitter to the ground. Also, many are acting like Musk has free rein in running the company. Yes and no. Beyond needing employees to actually run the thing, he also has loans to pay back ($13B!) and investors to maintain good relationships with. More on that here: https…

Firing the person who fought against government censorship and worked to establish a balanced content policy for almost a quarter billion people across the planet is not a great move if he wants anyone to believe that. The only people who even know who she is either know the good work she does or had it out for her over the reluctant and long-delayed ban of Trump. She just kind of quietly kept Twitter from turning in…

I would've thought a lot of people know her from Joe Rogan's podcast and especially the sections where Tim Pool challenged her.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#305

Post by rootusrootus »

concinds wrote: post #217
chamakits wrote: post #161

I understand that he has been publicly combative with all the executives; but is it a practical to fire all those key executives right away? Specially, do they not contain any specifically useful knowledge or experience that you should make an attempt at creating a collaborative transition? Is this how these kinds of acquisitions of public companies happen? Isn’t this effectively freezing all significant activities f…

It's pretty common for the CEO, CFO and general counsel to be dismissed after acquisitions in circumstances (like here) where the acquisition is a disavowal of their vision and leadership. Keep in mind there are far more executives than these three. It's less likely to happen for well-run, profitable companies that are just being acquired for talent or synergy reasons. The size of the acquired and acquiring firms, an…

> It's less likely to happen for well-run, profitable companies that are just being acquired for talent or synergy reasons.

Even then, it happens. My current company (mid sized, ~6000 employees) was recently acquired. Taken from public to private in the process. There's no broad plan to change what we do or how we do it, we are in an established market with pretty solid revenue numbers. They still axed the top three executives immediately.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#306

Post by Florin_Andrei »

concinds wrote: post #164
Animats wrote: post #129

OK, so far, not much. Musk is getting stretched rather thin. Space-X seems to be doing OK with Gwynne Shotwell running things. Tesla, which Musk apparently does really run personally, is doing OK, but their side ventures are not. Self-driving is a mess. Solar panels (yes, Tesla has a solar panel business) are not doing well. The Cybertruck is years late. (Maybe next year.[1]) So is the Tesla Model 2, the low-end vehi…

I expect Tesla will still be his "crown jewel". He's already announced he's searching for a Twitter CEO. I doubt it would take him much time out of his day to set a general vision for Twitter. Jeff Bezos for example owns the Washington Post, but doesn't run it (which will likely be the case with Musk and Twitter in a few months), and it doesn't seem to have detracted from anything while he was still CEO of Amazon. Fi…

I would very much prefer that he focuses on SpaceX and Tesla, in this order, seeing as he's more or less custom-built for those jobs, and there aren't that many people like that around.

Running Twitter OTOH? There's an endless supply of "captains of industry" in the Silicon Valley, who would be willing and able to do it.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#307

Post by concinds »

julianeon wrote: post #57

In the spirit of trying to be high-information and add value: Where Musk is going, there are no maps. So it's very very hard to project. But we can predict likely developments. At a very high level, it's going to involve: bringing back controversial personalities like Donald Trump; increasing Twitter's commitment to 'free speech'; assuaging skittish advertisers; retaining users who might be concerned, while bringing…

Most people are focused on censorship/content issues, but I really think the X.com "mega app" vision is the most significant part of this. It'll be hard to gain a foothold in those markets, and there'll be antitrust challenges, but it really fits perfectly with the rest of Musk's vision:

X.com Maps could tie in with Teslas, X.com Carhailing could tie-in with (future) full self-driving; Twitter could be expanded to be more like Telegram + Instagram, with channels, better DMs, "Moments", and more.

There's no attempt to create a single, wide-ranging social media platform, with payments, video, shorts, DMs, and more. China's proven that it can be done. It would create a far bigger moat and network effects, and likely be as successful as Microsoft Teams & 365, a highly integrated solution, are for work.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#308

Post by yieldcrv »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #9

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

Or Elon fixes San Francisco’s “use your platform” “inclusion by exclusion” culture as thousands of those kind of people disassociate and are replaced with a reversion to the mean of people that just want a paycheck

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#309

Post by remram »

mkl95 wrote: post #72

I find it kind of shocking that Musk likes Twitter that much, but at the same time it makes sense. If you ignore the wealth differential, his behaviour is similar to the average Twitter user. He may be the perfect owner in that sense. I also think it will be a clusterfuck within 5 years like some of his "side project" companies.

He bought it on the last possible day a court would allow, so I don't know how much he likes it really. He did try every possible move to get out of it.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#310

Post by thebradbain »

thethethethe wrote: post #156

If I was working at Twitter right now I would be looking for a different job, regardless of what I think of Elon's politics/motives. The talk of layoffs and major policy changes creates massive uncertainty and I don't think I'd risk sticking out the transition. I bet many inside the company feel the same. This begs the question: If there is a major exodus, will it even matter? And, if it does, how will the problems m…

I mean, if you're a huge fan of him you'd probably stay.

If you're not, you'd probably stay for the severance package, and do absolutely no work in the meantime. No company or recruiter will be holding the fact you were fired against you if/when you're swept away in the layoffs.

If you genuinely like your job there and don't feel strongly about Musk either way, that's probably the toughest situation, and you should come to terms with the fact that even if you keep your job at Twitter it will likely feel like an entirely different workplace in a couple months.

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