• Izzy@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I find it really difficult to believe there is any benefit to him buying and killing Twitter for billions of dollars. It would have to be extremely contrived and possibly a really well kept conspiracy.

    • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      We know there’s no benefit to him here because a court forced him to go through with the purchase after he tried to back out. He did not want this mess.

    • Mana@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Yeah at first it appears it was a major screw up but the screw ups keep coming so i wonder.

      • Izzy@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Even before Twitter was purchased it was in a really delicate balancing act of profitability. Any misstep that seemed slightly too much had advertisers and users leaving and the opposite meant Twitter couldn’t make a profit. Perhaps anyone purchasing Twitter would tip that scale with anything they tried, but Elon here instead of walking back his decisions when they don’t work keeps doubling down.

        • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Twitter doesn’t generate profits:

          Twitter has been operating at a massive loss for years, failing to book an annual profit since 2019 (Mauer, 2022). For eight out of the last ten years, the company has posted a loss.

          If anyone wants to nitpick over the 2/10 years when they reported profitability, consider the real value of getting in the black twice in company history in an environment where you’re gearing up for a an IPO. The long-term trend is clearly that this is not a viable business model.

        • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Which is why I find it really hard to believe it’s not intentional even if I don’t understand the end game.

          Delicately balanced is one thing. Making repeated decisions that my technophobe father could see are stupid is another.

          I flipped from “wow he’s really mismanaging this” to “wow he’s trying to kill it” about 2 months ago, and have become nothing but more convinced since then.

          • rentar42@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            I’m almost entirely with you on this.

            But the only thing causing mind on my doubt is how excessively impulsive and not-in-control-of-himself Enlo often seems. That’s the only thing that makes “this is just a serious of very stupid decisions made in the heat of the moment” even somewhat plausible.

        • ProtonBadger@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, it’s very typical human to double down when things start to go wrong. It’s this kind of stubborn bloody minded mindset and a lot of luck that saved Tesla when it was balancing on a knife’s edge and same with SpaceX, he kept pushing his crazy ideas but they worked out in the last second. However, Twitter is a different beast entirely, it’s not going to be saved by manufacturing, it’s about something Elon Musk does poorly with: people.