• @daniskarma@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    392 years ago

    The didn’t buy Twitter for a profit.

    He bought Twitter to destroy it because big free horizontal communication platforms are bad for billionaires.

    He can’t just close it, so he just destroy it little by little until it is no more.

    The same way conservative groups bought Tumblr because it was too sexual liberating for their conservative views.

    • @notatoad@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      442 years ago

      he offered to buy twitter for a joke, and he actually did buy twitter because a court forced him to. not because this was some grand plan to accomplish anything - he literally spent months in court arguing that he shouldn’t have to buy twitter, and he lost. that’s the only reason he owns twitter now.

    • Heresy_generator
      link
      fedilink
      32 years ago

      He bought Twitter because he (along with the Saudi royal family, the monarchy ruling Qatar, and the larger worldwide cabal of authoritarians) thought he could use it to control public discourse in the same way oligarchs bought up newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations in the past. He’s killing it because he never understood what most people liked about Twitter, he only understood what he liked about Twitter (getting a lot of attention and being able to be shitty to people without having to actually socialize).

    • @Uniquitous@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      72 years ago

      Why couldn’t he just close it, if that was his goal? He owns it outright doesn’t he? He could announce that Twitter was ceasing operations, sell off the remaining assets, cover (or default on) the debts, and then Twitter would be no more.

      So no, I don’t think destroying it was his aim. He’s just really, really bad at this.

      • Brandon
        link
        fedilink
        English
        2
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        He owns it outright doesn’t he?

        Others own equity, approximately 1/3 of the initial payment he made was from some of his close friends. Close friends or not, they’re not going to let him off the hook for about 7b, additionally he could not afford to pay them if he shuts it down, he had to borrow between 2 and 3 billion to secure the deal in the first place beyond what they’d invested.

        If Twitter becomes profitable, they get paid and everyone on their side is happy. If Twitter doesn’t become profitable, Elon is the one that takes the fall and they get paid anyway so they don’t care, although I’m sure they’d prefer more than their investment back.

        • @Uniquitous@lemmy.one
          link
          fedilink
          English
          12 years ago

          But as the richest man in the world, he could cover their stakes. If the goal was to end Twitter, he has the resources to do so without losing anyone else’s money.

          • Brandon
            link
            fedilink
            English
            12 years ago

            But as the richest man in the world, he could cover their stakes.

            As previously stated, no. He couldn’t. He needed their money just to acquire the company, he did not have enough liquid assets himself to make the purchase and sold a lot of his stock in Tesla beyond just the equity shares. If Twitter fails he’ll be on the losing end financially for once, so he needs it to be successful. The courts did the world a favor and forced a purchase by actually upholding the law.

            • @Uniquitous@lemmy.one
              link
              fedilink
              English
              12 years ago

              He didn’t need their money, he just wanted it. Worse comes to worst, he can find enough in the couch cushions to cover them.

              • Brandon
                link
                fedilink
                English
                22 years ago

                He didn’t need their money, he just wanted it.

                Oh, okay.

      • Dr. Dabbles
        link
        fedilink
        English
        152 years ago

        “mistake” in this case actually means by shooting his mouth off and thinking he was smarter than everyone else in the room. He fucked around, then immediately began finding out.

        • @ChrisLicht@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          52 years ago

          But, $420.69, bruh!

          It’s so frustrating to be in the Valley, and be subjected to one set of rules to tightly follow, while a group of special sociopaths (e.g., Musk, SBF, Holmes, Neumann) are free to do whatever they like.

          • @LostSchema@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            12 years ago

            Just playing devil’s advocate. But aren’t two of your examples either on their way or in jail right now?

            • @ChrisLicht@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              22 years ago

              I should have been more clear: The Valley allows and even encourages certain sociopaths to flout rules and conventions around ethics and reporting, while the rest of us are held tightly to those rules and conventions. For example, Sequoia seemingly didn’t even perform de minimis due diligence when leading a nine-figure round in FTX.

      • JoYo 🇺🇸
        link
        fedilink
        English
        22 years ago

        This is also the case, however he had the option to drop out with much lower losses.

    • @Isthisreddit@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      112 years ago

      You give Musk too much credit. The fucking guy is a big baby with impulse issues - who happens to have billions of dollars at his disposal. He is running Twitter exactly as I would think a dipshit narcissistic tantrum baby would run it, although dismantling Twitter does coincidentally benefit the top .1% for now

    • TWeaK
      link
      fedilink
      English
      22 years ago

      Exactly. His old friend Peter Thiel couldn’t make a rival platform take off, so Musk bought Twitter and saddled it with an untenable $13bn of debt.