Elon Musk, the renegade entrepreneur who acquired Twitter for $US44 billion in October, has admitted the social media platform could die. How did Twitter end up in such a mess, and does Musk actually have a plan to save it?
But in reality many of the decisions that Musk has made about Twitter since first expressing a desire to buy the company in April have left people dumbfounded. He has begunHow did Twitter get into this mess?
“[Twitter is] such a mess – it’s as if they drove a clown car into a gold mine and fell in,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg once famously remarked. Musk may have honourable motives, but the world’s richest man also clearly sensed a target. In April, he had built a 9.2 per cent stake in the company, in secret, becoming the largest shareholder.
Sensing he would now be drastically overpaying for the company, Musk tried to get out of the deal, declaring the agreement worthless. In June, Twitter took the unusual step of suing Musk to complete the deal at the agreed price tag of $US44 billion. Many of the most significant changes that Musk intends to make to the Twitter product remain in the works.
He has already alienated some of the company’s advertisers with his actions since taking over two weeks ago. He has lashed out at companies which have pulled back on spending, tweeting that he would “name and shame” those who he believed were bowing to pressure from activists.
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