So after week two of the Elon Musk Twitter drama, we’re left in a state of limbo, as we await the final approvals for the deal, which will eventually make Musk the head honcho at a private Twitter, which may or may not run ads anymore, may or may not allow all types of racist, homophobic and abusive speech, and may or may not be able to, one day, actually make money, despite these changes.
And we have little to go on right now as to how it will impact the company, and the platform as we know it. What we do know is that Twitter employees are increasingly nervous about their jobs, and the business that they may end up working for under Musk, while we’ve also had some slight hints as to how Musk plans to change the app.
To be clear, Twitter is not a charity, and after spending $44 billion on the app, Elon Musk will be looking for ways to maximize Twitter’s revenue intake, and recoup at least some of that cost. In a recent interview, Musk said that doesn’t care about the economics of the deal at all, and that his driving mission is to run “a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive”.
But with huge debt, and accumulating interest, Musk has to make money too, and the bull case for the acquisition is that Musk, being the visionary that he is, sees something that others don’t, and can clear a pathway to optimal success for the platform – even though most market analysts see no viable pathway to turning any significant profit from the app.
So how will Musk do it?
Here are the areas that Musk is reportedly looking at right now – and to be clear, Musk has come up with these proposals without internal knowledge of the company and its current make up.
Again, Musk has made these pitches in meetings to secure funding for his Twitter bid, and without internal insight into how the company is currently run, and what’s truly possible within the current structure, or within any future re-shaping of the business.
But it does seem like this is where Musk is likely to make his big changes, especially given that Twitter doesn’t have a lot of other paths to take, based on historical performance.
But there may be additional opportunities that we’re not seeing, and the general view is that Twitter has underperformed over time, with even current CEO Parag Agrawal noting in an all-hands meeting this week that:
“I could have done things differently. I think about this a lot. I feel accountable for my actions I’ve taken over the last decade. I’ve only been in this job for four months, but I’ve been at the company for a decade. And yes, we could have done better. Should have done better.”
Maybe, now is the time that Twitter can make those big changes, with more freedom as an independent company – and again, many have pointed to Musk’s genius in other fields, so maybe he does indeed see something that others don’t here.
What we know for sure is that this will be the most public demonstration of that genius that Musk has ever had, and if he truly is the visionary that many believe, he’ll definitely have a chance to prove it.
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For months, we’ve all been waiting to hear the verdict on Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal with Twitter. Now, as Musk seeks to terminate this deal, we must wait on the courts to decide the fate of this contract.
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For months, we’ve all been waiting to hear the verdict on Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal with Twitter. Now, as Musk seeks to terminate this deal, we must wait on the courts to decide the fate of this contract.
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