Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have recently stated that most of the company's top-spending advertisers from last year have returned.

Most of the world’s biggest advertisers have stopped buying ads on Elon Musk’s X, exclusive new data shows::Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have recently stated that most of the company’s top-spending advertisers from last year have returned.

  • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldEnglish
    758·
    1 year ago

    Does anyone else consider it plausible that flushing $44 billion is worth the cost if it removes that meddlesome social media platform that activists rely on to syndicate human rights abuses and document all the other terrible stuff that happens around the world?

    There’s something way sketch about this entire narrative

      • OrangeJoe@lemm.eeEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        This absolutely feels like a Hanlon’s razor type situation especially given what we have learned about Elon musk over the last 5 or so years. The whole evil genius shtick just doesn’t fly anymore. He’s an idiot who just happens to have made enough good or lucky business decisions in the past to get him where he is now.

    • UnspecificGravity@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      281·
      1 year ago

      It’s impossible to say what anything is worth to a person who can lose 44 billion dollars and still have so much money left that the next 10 generations of their lineage won’t ever have to work again.

      It’s insane to think of that as a trivial amount of money, but musk could literally lose 99% of his money and it wouldn’t impact his life at all, except for his hobby of bankrupting corporations.

      • stifle867@programming.devEnglish
        91·
        1 year ago

        As obscenely wealthy as he is, that wealth comes from bis assets not cash in hand. $20B of the $44B paid was cash, some of which was from selling some of his Tesla shares. Further to that, Tesla stock dropped so significantly it caused his net worth to drop by a further $30B.

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      202·
      1 year ago

      I don’t think so because another platform will pop up eventually. It’s too much money for a short term thing

      • Serinus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        It’s probably a combination. He considered buying it for reasons including the above. He didn’t intend to pay $44 billion or actually buy the company. He didn’t intend to ruin it.

      • Lightor@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Eventually could be a while, and during that time they don’t have to worry. Also, without it fully tanking and limping along, many will stay and have stayed. This removes the need for an immediate replacement and hurts the possible success of one as celebrities, companies, artists, etc can and do just stay on Twitter.

    • Zetta@mander.xyzEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      I don’t consider that plausible. I think must didn’t really want to buy Twitter but fucked up and was forced to.

        • Zetta@mander.xyzEnglish
          11·
          1 year ago

          Except that seems exceptionally stupid, why in the world would he waste that much money to take down a platform that can and is already being replaced by competitors?

          I think y’all are conspiracy crazy

    • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.brEnglish
      9·
      1 year ago

      Did he actually paid 44B of his own money? How much of the money came from saudi investors and twitter leverage debt?

      • abhibeckert@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        I don’t think the exact amount is known, but he got money from a lot of sources and the bulk of it was Elon’s own money (or at least, his own assets). He also sourced a lot of money from other American billionaires (Larry Ellison for example).

        It’s likely the Saudis invested very little… although they did invest enough that Elon has to have given them something in return.

        Nobody involved in that purchase expected to make money on it. The price was far too high.

    • arc@lemm.eeEnglish
      31·
      1 year ago

      There are other social media platforms so I don’t really see it. I just think Musk is a narcissist, egotist and utter hypocrite whose big mouth and lack of due diligence compelled him to buy the platform. And it turns out he’s really terrible at running a social media platform.

      • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        1 year ago

        For a lot of activists and oppressive governments, though, its all about like the short-term. If you get killed because of Twitters current bullshit or you can’t be as affective by using it as a digital-bullhorn to maybe effect change in a more peaceful way, its not as relevant to you personally and your persecutor de jour if Mastodon blows up and becomes the actual Next-Twitter