Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

871–880 of 1001 posts

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#871

Post by PixyMisa »

novok wrote: post #789
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…

I've been in companies where 1/5th of engineer was laid off. The state of company infra and the product dropped significantly and it took a long time to approach recovery, where they hired the same amount of staff back. I can't imagine how dysfunctional twitter would be with %75 of staff gone, I don't even know if it will continue running as a business after that.

Most of Twitter's staff aren't engineers. In fact, by their own descriptions of their workdays, most of Twitter's staff don't do anything at all.

Twitter will function better with 75% of the staff gone.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#872

Post by seanhunter »

ReptileMan wrote: post #791
novok wrote: post #789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been in companies where 1/5th of engineer was laid off. The state of company infra and the product dropped significantly and it took a long time to approach recovery, where they hired the same amount of staff back. I can't imagine how dysfunctional twitter would be with %75 of staff gone, I don't even know if it will continue running as a business after that.

There is a lot of cruft without touching the engineering department. And there are always those two guys in every team that when they call sick - productivity of the team increases.

Even if that were true the problem with the approach he has taken is that by leaking that you are going to perform swinging cuts, everyone who can get another job immediately starts looking so by the time you actually get around to doing the layoff the team has self-selected and you only have “those two guys” left.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#873

Post by PixyMisa »

mullingitover wrote: post #320
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…

> managing the exodus of users (size:?) that will happen regardless; This is probably the biggest risk in this acquisition. Twitter wasn't doing anything special, and it's easy to launch a clone of their business model. Elon's talking about taking an axe to the things that keep the lights on at Twitter: effective content moderation and talent.

They don't have effective content moderation or talent though.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#874

Post by grogenaut »

jjguy wrote: post #779
GMoromisato wrote: post #582

My predictions: 1. Musk is going to discover (and maybe admit?) that fixing Twitter is harder than he thought. It will be just like self-driving, which seems straightforward, but which actually has thousands of edge cases which are hard to solve with a single general system. Nevertheless, he will persist, because that's what he does. 2. Current Twitter makes a profit on advertising, which means Twitter needs to encou…

With respect to the name “X” - I’ll bet he revives the OG x.com brand - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com

I had a chance to buy 76.com before the oil company realized they should buy it. Had I any access to capital as a kid I would have bought it for $2k. well at least I get it as a trump in dns stories missed out on.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#875

Post by emkoemko »

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…

still no golden goose the "robotaxi" he promised was coming out years ago and told people to buy the Tesla now since they would be updated with this feature... i got scammed, should of known a car making me 30,000$ a year was to good to be true.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#877

Post by emkoemko »

ar_lan wrote: post #323
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…

Wasn’t the Model 3 the “low cost” one? Is there supposed to be a cheaper one? Cars are so confusing these days - $40k USD just seems like the average price now. My neighborhood has so many Tesla roofs I was actually surprised by your comment - but that’s fascinating! I thought they would be doing much better.

he scammed me ... years ago he said to buy a Telsa because next year they would make you 30,000$ a year being a robotaxi... i fell for it.. no idea what he was doing say these things

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#878

Post by emkoemko »

dexterdog wrote: post #352
ar_lan wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn’t the Model 3 the “low cost” one? Is there supposed to be a cheaper one? Cars are so confusing these days - $40k USD just seems like the average price now. My neighborhood has so many Tesla roofs I was actually surprised by your comment - but that’s fascinating! I thought they would be doing much better.

The base model 3 starts at 48,490. They were supposed to have a $35K version. I think they sold one to a guy once at that price with bike tires and folding chairs as seats.

the thing was the robotaxi would of payed of the car in a year so i bought it, now i will never touch Tesla

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#879

Post by DeathArrow »

While this might be a boon for the returning of free speech, I wonder if Musk will succeed in monetizing the platform, a task where previous CEOs failed.

Also, had he waited a couple more weeks before making the offer, he could have bought Twitter for half the price.

Even if he manages to make the acquisition worth, I would expect it would take at least 5 - 10 years, so it isn't the best investment he could made.

It seems his impetuous and histrionic side made him act when he should allow him more time for reflection.

I'm not saying he isn't capable of making Twitter a financial success, after all he has a record for stuff like that, but if I was an investor in one of his enterprises it would gave me some food for thought.

Post reply on HN