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submitted 11 months ago by woshang@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

A year after he bought Twitter for $44 billion, Musk thinks the company is now worth $19 billion, a 55 percent drop.

Let's recap what he did to Twitter, I will go first:

  • Changed the original name Twitter to X.
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[-] Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world 87 points 11 months ago

Is anyone else surprised it's even worth that much?

[-] yata@sh.itjust.works 69 points 11 months ago

A lot of journalists, politicians and influencers are really reluctant to let it go. I guess those are the ones still keeping it somewhat afloat.

It should be more publicly shamed if you keep being a part of his insanity.

[-] Fisk400@feddit.nu 7 points 11 months ago

It's because no other social media platform currently meets their requirements. Other platforms either functions significantly different from twitter or it lacks the reach that a politician needs in order for it to be worth their time.

[-] eddietrax@dmv.social 21 points 11 months ago

“Worth their time” ? Copy\paste the text into Mastodon. Post Done

I can empathize with the reluctance to completely jump ship but it costs nothing (both money and time) to cross post to another platform.

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[-] Carighan@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yep. I mean in the end it has no product. It's just billboard/ad space, in the world of commerce. Sure, it's a lot of ad space, but ad space in the digital world is also effectively endless, so the percentage still isn't actually that relevant as it can shift in a moment's notice.

Say... if a neonazi buys the platform and brings all his friends with him.

But beyond an office he's not even paying for and so on, Xitter got... nothing. They have no actual product that can be liquidated, no supply chains worth any money, nothing to rent/sell out beyond said adspace. Like many digital companies they rely entirely on hype for all their perceived value.

[-] donuts@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

Honestly it's probably not... Estimates aside, who would even want to buy Twitter in its current incarnation?

[-] Fisk400@feddit.nu 12 points 11 months ago

It still has a big enough user base and brand recognition that they could put things back on course if they really went for it. The only permanent damage is the brain drain from firing a lot of people that has experience in running twitter.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

The only permanent damage is the brain drain from firing a lot of people that has experience in running twitter.

That's like saying "he suffered no permanent damage except the removal of his spine"

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 5 points 11 months ago

Brand recognition? That's ironic. The Twitter brand had recognition. But you can't say X, you have to say "X, formerly Twitter."

Otherwise you're right, of course, But I can't see it being resurrected.

[-] Fisk400@feddit.nu 8 points 11 months ago

Yes, twitter is the brand. The first action of a sane buyer would be to put the bird logo back. 20 billions of its current value comes from the fact that they still own that name.

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[-] Nobody@lemmy.world 45 points 11 months ago

It was never about the money. Musk is turning a once-valuable information space into a fascist shithole. That was always the goal.

[-] MostlyHarmless@sh.itjust.works 32 points 11 months ago

Yeah, I don't believe that. Turning it into a fascist shit hole might have been a goal, but losing billions doing it isn't.

He's an arrogant fuck who wants everyone to believe he's a genius. Blowing that much money makes him look like a moron.

[-] lingh0e@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago

He is rich enough that it literally doesn't matter. This was "expensive" for him on paper, but hardly life changing.

[-] xts@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah it’s definitely life changing. The public sentiment over the last couple of years has gone from

“wow Elon musk is a genius who will electrify the world and get us to mars”

to

“Wow Elon Musk is a massive moron who clearly isn’t anywhere near as smart as he thinks he is”

and the more he spreads right wing conspiracy shit the worse it’s getting for him.

Let’s not even talk about the public image but the private one now- he borrowed something like $20b? from several banks to make the deal who are now saddled with the debt. They have also been discussing (publicly) selling it at a loss because they’re done with Elon. Other banks will not lend him money, ESPECIALLY with interest rates being what they are and what he’s done this last year. The time of free money (which is how he built all of his companies) and unlimited government subsidies is done and that’s the only way he’s been successful- when there’s virtually no risk.

He cannot pay his interest payments because he’s only rich on paper. He’s likely cash poor and hasn’t even been paying normal Twitter bills let alone interest payments for his $20b loan, which IIRC gains like a billion in interest every year. Dude dug himself into a hole with no way out

[-] lingh0e@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago

Sounds like he's only a constitutional amendment away from being President of The US.

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[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Once valuable? Fuck that. Twitter has always been and always will be Jerry Springer for the Internet. It's fun to watch some toothless hooker throw a shoe at a priest until Grandma finds out you are on their as 4chan gaslighting the priest and the hooker.

The value is pure entertainment. Anyone that takes it more seriously has not seen it for what it is.

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[-] SeedyOne@lemm.ee 36 points 11 months ago

Let's put this another way.

That ~25 billion, heavily absorbed by foreign investors, has bought influence on worldwide events/elections and allowed those that previously hated the platform to sabotage it internally, likely to a post-election failure.

Makes you wonder to what degree we have a "useful idiot billionaire" situation, with other interests (countries?) steering the out of control train to their benefit.

[-] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 31 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Don’t forget him allowing all the banned Neo-Nazis back on! Advertisers just loved that.

[-] dhork@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

I'm sure the value will come back. Valuing X at $19B puts the value of the whole alphabet at $500B, which seems low for an established technology which has been in continuous use since before the time of the Roman Empire.

The US GDP is $24 trillion, and all the financial reports supporting that valuation use the Roman Alphabet. The Alphabet is essential to justifying the value of the entire US Economy. I think it's reasonable to value the worth of the alphabet at 8% of GDP, which would give X a fair value of $74B.

See, haters? Elon really is a financial genius. Numbers don't lie.

[-] Throwaway@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 11 months ago

Actually, Alphabet is currently valued at 1.56 trillion dollars.

https://g.co/kgs/Tchkeb

[-] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

Wow X, you suck: Pull your weight! Look at how much the other letters are worth!

[-] ExLisper@linux.community 6 points 11 months ago

Come on. Obviously not all letters in the alphabet are worth the same. X is not that popular even if you take into account its different uses like ':x', 'xoxo' or 'xxx'. Not that many words use x and if one day it collapses and becomes unavailable you can just substitute it with 'ks' like 'seks' or 'meksican'.

[-] shoxer@kbin.social 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Bring back shadowbanning.
Uses user data to train AI models.
Limits replies to verified users only…

Elon has made so many terrible changes to Twitter. I’m happy to be out and migrate to Mastodon and WireMin since last December. Using Mastodon to track up to date news and WireMin to stay connected with a few friends who also left Twitter.

Now I just look at Twitter like it’s the house burning down across the street.

[-] woshang@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

'Freedom of Speech Not Reach', I was like isn't the same thing with Shadowbanning? It's so disgusting that he keeps claiming Twitter is the place for online Freedom of Speech but look at what he did.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Controlling the narrative is why he bought it.

44 billion is chump change to him. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find his sole motive was to silence critics now that he got outed as a massive douche.

I rememy when i could call him a massive douche and a faux-engineer and people would pile on as though he actually built the cars himself. (Fact: he’s not a Tesla founder. He bought Tesla. And made them call him a founder.)

[-] 4am@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago

He didn’t want to buy it, remember? A court forced him after he set wheels in motion as “le epic trolololo” and now that he was forced to buy it, he and his authoritarian backers figure they might as well tank it in order to combat the “woke mind virus” aka people waking up to the feudal lords of late-stage capitalism keeping the scales tipped in their favor eternally.

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[-] aeternum@kbin.social 15 points 11 months ago

The worst thing he did was change the name. I mean, everyone knew twitter. Now you have to qualify it with "Musk's X"

[-] omgarm@feddit.nl 24 points 11 months ago
[-] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago
[-] PupBiru@kbin.social 9 points 11 months ago

i believe the full name is

“the company formerly known as Twitter aka Birdsite, Xitter pronounced Shitter aka X”

[-] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

While true, I prefer not to dedicate the time to Musk it'd take to type that out.

...also, the guy deliberately misgenders his kid and gets upset when people mislabel the platform he's burning to the ground, so do with that what you will.

[-] Dirk@lemmy.ml 17 points 11 months ago

X (formerly known as Twitter)

[-] timtoon@kbin.social 29 points 11 months ago

$19 billion (formerly known as $44 billion)

[-] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 6 points 11 months ago

"X, the social networking website formerly known as Twitter".

Maybe we should call it TSNWFKAT, like Prince did for a bit.

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[-] woshang@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

And he wants to make it a Everything app, thats terrible

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[-] cley_faye@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

That's the value he think it's worth, not what someone would actually pay for it.

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[-] elbucho@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

I don't think it was even worth half of what he paid for it when he paid for it. Musk is a complete god damned moron. I'd be surprised if the company was even worth $19 billion when he bought it for $44 bn. And there's no way in fuck that it's worth $19 bn now. Absolute dogshit assessment. Not that I'm surprised, mind. It's Musk's assessment, after all.

[-] BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago
[-] bitwolf@lemmy.one 6 points 11 months ago

He could have just donated all of that to the Signal foundation if he wanted to protect free speech.

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this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
569 points (100.0% liked)

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