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

nytimes.com

41–50 of 102 posts

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

#41

$19B ?! I think they forgot the comma here. And even that would be generous. All advertisers are gone - it seems like most advertising is some absolute crap. No way it brings any real money. Linda Yaccarino was recently caught lying (or rather, presenting the state of affairs in Elon's way) - suggesting and even naming some big brands that are supposedly back, while they are not (or spend 0.1% of their previous spend…

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

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

#42

> “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?

I read your comment using X with its historical meaning of "insert option here" instead of the rebranding of Twitter and it gave me one more reason to hate this stupid, stupid rebrand even as someone who doesn't use it.

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

#44
The "Elon is saving free speech, so this is worth it" argument for this incredible destruction of value is what cracks me up.

The internet had/has no problem hosting repugnant viewpoints. Plenty of web hosting providers are available for you to share your most vile, hateful thoughts. We're watching a very powerful person discover in real time that free speech isn't something that generates value on its own.

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

#45
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…

Wait, more job cuts? Sounds like slow walk into death to me, they seem to be barely keeping up and/or delivering any new features?

Does Twitter need "new features"?

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

#46
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…

>Musk made the offer just before a big drop in valuation of tech companies.

Aren't most tech companies back near their ATHs? MSFT is above what it before that drop. Meta had the most notable crash but they're only ~20% lower than pre-that drop.

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

#47

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 generally dislike publicly traded companies and wish stock markets and speculation didn't exist, but there's no hope of that, so instead I'll cheer on any public corporation that goes private. I think using mass social media is largely bad for your mental health, but I hope the company succeeds in some capacity.

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

#48
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I dont know either but I cant fathom why he paid that much for the company only to play Nero.

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

#49
Given he also destroyed the brand name and all brand value associated with it, this number still seems way too high. Especially when you see downloads have dipped drastically. Accounts that get payouts now just post nonsense trying to get engagement, it's like the "click fraud" of social media posting. No idea why any advertiser would touch it. To me Twitter was once the most valuable social media platform that no one could figure out how to monetize...now it's, I don't even know what it is now. Unless he's trying to recreate The Producers in tech, almost nothing he's done makes much sense.

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

#50

$19B ?! I think they forgot the comma here. And even that would be generous. All advertisers are gone - it seems like most advertising is some absolute crap. No way it brings any real money. Linda Yaccarino was recently caught lying (or rather, presenting the state of affairs in Elon's way) - suggesting and even naming some big brands that are supposedly back, while they are not (or spend 0.1% of their previous spend…

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

TIL free speech was dead in 2022.
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