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Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

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Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#701

Post by TX81Z »

anigbrowl wrote: post #320
TX81Z wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These people tend to hold on until right before their reputation is totally unsalvageable so they can relaunch their personal brand with a hero narrative.

That's what happened Esther Crawford, now she tweets about her hopes to productize 'moments of calm and psychological intimacy', whatever that means. Can't load the tweet rn because rate limited (lol) but the replies were divided between people shilling their product and other people suggesting that fireplaces and loveseats already meet this need.

She’s gonna sell molly?

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#702

Post by pinkcan »

halostatue wrote: post #678
parthdesai wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to fall in the camp that a “fundamentally dumb guy” won’t be able to successfully start, grow and run Tesla and Space X. Was buying twitter a mistake? Sure. Did he make dumb decisions when it comes to twitter? Yes. But IMO, that’s very different than labelling someone “fundamentally dumb”

Musk did not found Tesla.

this.

seems a lot of people confound funding and founding, he was one of Tesla's early funders, but he was not part of the team that founded it.

> he sank an initial investment of more than $6 million into Tesla, which was then not much more than a pair of founders and a vision of electric sports cars.

– https://time.com/6127754/elon-musk-net-worth-person-of-the-y...

> So AC Propulsion CEO Gage suggested Musk speak with electric car start-up Tesla Motors, which was also looking to commercialize the tzero. Musk reasoned that by teaming up with another company, he could “have my cake and eat it too,” he said on the podcast – he could still run SpaceX but also pursue his passion for electric cars in his spare time.

> “I didn’t think it would be easy, but I thought maybe I could allocate 20 to 30 hours a week and just work on product engineering, and then other people could do the other stuff. I didn’t like doing the other stuff anyway,” Musk said.

– https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/30/elon-musk-i-really-didnt-wan...

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#704

Post by tpetry »

rsynnott wrote: post #241
crote wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatively, the costs outweigh impression revenue, they are actively running out of money, and trying to stall while desperately trying to find additional cash.

That seems… implausible? They used to be profitable; clearly at that point advertising revenue must have greatly exceeded infra cost. Now, I’d buy that it’s down, but surely not by _that_ much.

A lot of advertisers left Twitter one after another after each change by musk. Especially his change to allow hate speech (because free speech!) led to an exodus.

Now there are only very low-quality ads by drop-shipping companies left. I bet they don‘t pay as much as the big brand names before.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#705

Post by badrequest »

JauntTrooper wrote: post #651
samtp wrote: post #636

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what world is a 38% premium not well above market value? If you pay $1.38m for a $1m house, you are definitely paying well above market value.

Market value and fair value aren't necessarily the same thing. The 38% is just the one day premium. The offer was at a discount to the stock price less than six months earlier. It was possible that the stock price had overreacted to a tech sell off, and if the market had rebounded by the summer the bid could have looked genius. Market pricing in M&A is somewhat opaque and different than trading prices because it's ba…

Does doing mental gymnastics like this strengthen your brain?

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#706

Post by leobg »

fundad wrote: post #672
leobg wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven’t read anything so off the mark in quite a while. Your basic assumption already makes no sense. Please list the businesses Elon has started after his PayPal days with the goal of enriching himself. Also, money is a means to an end, is it not? So what do you think he’d do with more money? Again, you can look at what he did with his Zip2 money. And then his PayPal money. That might give you a clue.

Right it’s not about revenue, only power

One might think that, sure. But I’ve seen this story that led to the Twitter takeover unfold since 2015. And I don’t think you’re right in this case.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#707

Post by gmerc »

troupo wrote: post #573
phpisthebest wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I don't think this is because of the "end of cheap money" Explain just about all platforms doing revenue adjusting user hostile actions then? Examples include Reddit with the API fees, YT with the Ad Blocking blocking. etc This is all a reaction to the end of cheap money, aka the cost of capital is going up, so companies need to actually make revenue instead of chasing free capital >>I don't think this high interes…

> Explain just about all platforms doing revenue adjusting user hostile actions then? Examples include Reddit with the API fees Bad example. Reddit actions (and Twitter actions) are definitely not due any user hostile actions. > YT with the Ad Blocking blocking. This one may be has some merit to it, but we only have Google's word for it, and Google itself doesn't seem to be hurting because of all the bad-no-good ad b…

It’s price perception shaping. Hey investors look how much we are charging for APIs, that’s how valuable our data is. Can I haz some money

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#708

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

badrequest wrote: post #705
JauntTrooper wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Market value and fair value aren't necessarily the same thing. The 38% is just the one day premium. The offer was at a discount to the stock price less than six months earlier. It was possible that the stock price had overreacted to a tech sell off, and if the market had rebounded by the summer the bid could have looked genius. Market pricing in M&A is somewhat opaque and different than trading prices because it's ba…

Does doing mental gymnastics like this strengthen your brain?

20% - 50% is the typical premium paid to take a public company private.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#709

Post by Beldin »

kevingadd wrote: post #542
thomassmith65 wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression was that he bought Twitter for the reasons you say, but failed to predict the dip in the market that followed it. If Twitter stock hadn't sunken immediately like a stone, he probably would have pulled it off, too, even after the signing the agreement. If indeed the Twitter deal was manipulation to leave poorer investors holding the Tesla bag, it's hard to feel sorry for him.

It seems like loading Twitter up with debt servicing was always a bad idea, stock dip or not, considering what its revenues were like. It wasn't in great shape before but the amount of money it now has to spend servicing debt is a nightmare for anyone trying to make that company profitable. His strategy for buying it simply doesn't make sense.

Not if the endgoal is to arrive at a profitable version of Twitter, no.

So maybe that's not the goal. Or maybe it is but the CEO is vastly more incompetent than those underwriting his bid anticipated.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#710

Post by Timon3 »

ALittleLight wrote: post #555
leokennis wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes. Inheriting and owning stuff makes you smart. Maybe even the smartest. One could argue it even makes you a “stable genius”!

Both of Musk's parents are still alive. Neither of them were involved in the electric car or rocket companies. It's fine to be a Musk critic - but you should restrict yourself to saying things that are actually true rather than making stuff up.

Maybe inheritance isn't the right word. I understood them as saying "he was born into money" - is there another way to say he "inherited" purely in the sense of money being passed onto him?
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