Elon Musk email to X staff: ‘we’re barely breaking even’

Claims in an interview that he is qualified to handle a social media company on the internet because he has "put internet in space"
Buys a financially struggling company for way too much money
Dismantles everything that made it attractive
Insults and fires the most competent employees who are trying to stop him from destroying the platform
Doesn't pay the employees he fired owed severance, further discouraging the best of the workforce from ever applying to work there
Turned it into something so repulsive and toxic that the users and advertisers start to leave
Told the advertisers to "go fuck themselves"
Tried to sue the advertisers into returning, further discouraging any new advertiser from ever doing business with him
Destroys the brand recognition by renaming it to a letter of the alphabet he personally likes but nobody else gives a crap about
Abuses his admin powers to steal a handle with the name he wanted from its owner, further eroding the user's trust in him handling the platform
Continues ruining the platform, turning it into his personal soap box to push his (toxic) ideas and abuses his powers to reduce the visibility of those he doesn't like while claiming to be radically pro-free speech.
Alternative platforms have gained momentum and have reached critical mass and will soon become the new default platform people will flock to. High profile users leave.
Whines and bitches about the company not making any money.

Hey guys, I'm starting to think that this guy's fortune has absolutely nothing to do with his skills at running a business

Destroys the brand recognition by renaming it to a letter of the alphabet he personally likes but nobody else gives a crap about
I'm beginning to suspect he only likes that letter because it's the middle part of a swastika.
- Hey, it's not just that! It's also decimal 88 in the ASCII table.
- Oh shit. I didn't think of that. That's probably why.
- Let’s call it a musktika
Did you include the whole 'verified' tag fiasco in your list? I didn't see it explicitly in there, but maybe it falls under a general functionality fuck-up point.
What was the username he stole? Don’t remember that one
Also, don’t forget the disastrous rollout of the blue checks when a few people imitated companies and said Lockheed wouldn’t be doing business with Israel and a few others. But I guess that was the best thing he did, honestly, because that shit was hilarious.
- I believe he took user name 'x' because he wanted it.
- @america
  https://www.axios.com/2024/10/07/elon-musk-america-trump-2024-election

I would be shocked if the company was actually breaking even.

I think he's sugar-coating it because their bonds are about to go up for sale. From the article:
While equity investors have reportedly slashed the value of their stakes by as much as 78 percent, the Journal reports, “banks hope to sell senior debt at 90-95 cents on the dollar, while retaining more-junior holdings.”
If they were breaking even, the bonds wouldn't be getting sold at a loss. Keep in mind, the bond holders get paid before the stock holding investors, so if they're taking a loss, the equity investors are getting nothing (hence the 78 percent cut, basically their share is only worth the odds of a miraculous turnaround). That doesn't happen with a company unless it's losing money.
At absolute best it's breaking even before debt service.
Maybe he's still not just paying rent on some buildings and miraculously hasn't been kicked out yet

Turns out, nazi business is bad business

A victory for the free market
Hopefully as bad as nazi archaeology
- Hey now at least this guy had a neat collapsing coat hanger.
Do we need a catchy “go Nazi get…____” catchphrase? It was such a g when the right wing did it! They do love a good catchphrase. Easier to remember.
- How about "Go Nazi get shot in the head"
- Go nazi declare bankruptcy
  Redpilled? Get killed
  Go fash lose cash
  Lick boot, lose loot
  Go right eat shite
  All incel, no braincells
  Nazi salute, go destitute
  ADL? Common L
  Ku Klux? Lose bucks
  Go apartheid, all downside
- Go nazi go bankrupt? Go nazi get Luigied? Go nazi get nasty? Go nazi get ,,,
- Nazi business means no business
- "Fascist around and find out."
I just gave upvote 88 and now I’m sad.
- Thank you for your service 🫡

X has added some features, like job listings

Who the fuck looks for jobs on X?

- Huh? I’m referring to the “job listings” feature of X, not looking for job opportunities at X.
I'd "work there" long enough to get on a pip and terminated. Lol
Drain a little bit of cash out of them. Lol
I'm not a Nazi lol
- I’m referring to looking for jobs using X, not looking for a job at X (which I thought was clear when quoting the article’s mention of “job listings”).
Who the fuck looks for jobs on X?
People who prefer something (slightly) less toxic than LinkedIn lol

Go fash; lose cash.

hm, someone told me it was so easy to cut wasteful spending.

There's no fucking way they're breaking even.

@breakfastmtn @cm0002 it already bought an election, how much it is worth?
- Yeah. Bought an election for a bum who doesn't understand loyalty or how to pay his bills. Lol.
  What a Dumbass.

The man bought an election with disinformation and lobbying, who gives a fuck what he says about this company. Who knows what the fuck break even even means in his addled brain.

Bullshit. No way does Twitter make anywhere near a profit, and that’s NOT taking into account the payments on 44Bn.

After Twitter already not being profitable. Add all the loss of marketing from businesses and users leaving, then the cost of all the bots and lawsuits.

How come it is "barely breaking even"? Who is paying them? Fascists?

He's laundering money through it most likely

Aw geez, what a shame. As if Neo-Goebbels is going to shut his propaganda arm over something as trivial as money.

Musk also said that the company could become cash-flow positive “within months” nearly two years ago, and it still faces over $1 billion in annual interest payments on the loans.

3 months maybe, 6 months definitely

They should be losing fucking money hand over fist, is the problem.

With the site now serving as an outlet for right wing narratives and misinformation that benefits the administration, there will be an incentive to prop it up financially if need be. Banks have been trying unsuccessfully to offload their debt used to finance the acquisition, so it seems investors aren’t as confident in the site’s long term profitability even with its newfound role.

If only they had competant management...

At this point if you're still working there knowingly building a powerful fascist gathering platform after so much time available to leave, taking dirty Nazi money as payment for your services...

I dunno man... should I feel bad for the staff, or are the remaining staff complicit enough at this point?

Feel bad for the poor bastards stuck there on visas. Feel less bad about anyone looking around that can't quit but can't find another job. Would you hire someone who's still working at Twitter? I probably wouldn't even pull that resume for an interview.
- That's a point I had not considered. Twitter is resume poison, at this point.
Do they have employees on H1B? If so, that may be why they haven't jumped ship for less-Nazified pastures. Not excusing anyone, just striving to understand.
Let's not blame fellow workers for doing what they need to survive. Big tech companies are exploitive by nature, espcially H1B visas are basically indebted servitude at this point.
This is about class, not left vs right.
Or maybe take a paycheck and do substandard job introduce bugs etc.
- Heck, I'll even do that for a company I like!

Wouldn't barely breaking even actually be exceptionally good in the history of twitter? I though it had been burning money from its conception.

No, Twitter had started making a profit when he bought it. The last year they had a court case which made the year a loss, but the years before were profitable.

I think it's time to fire half of the people! That will help.

Starting with everyone that wrote the least amount of code. I only want to see overly complex code for hello world!

Awww, is the world’s greediest man not making enough money?

The advertisers are coming back, I swear!

Does stagnant actually mean negative?

Again damn gossip. Lemmy is also turning out to be a waste of time.