Elon Musk says he saved Twitter ‘from bankruptcy’

Elon Musk said the past three months had been “extremely difficult” as he struggled to “rescue Twitter from bankruptcy” while leading his other companies, Tesla and SpaceX.

The billionaire’s candid admission follows his past warnings about Twitter’s dire financial conditions since buying the ailing social media platform for $44 billion last October.

“I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone,” Musk tweeted Sunday regarding the difficult stretch.

“Twitter still has challenges, but it now tends to break even if we continue. The public support is much appreciated!” he added.

Musk tempered his rosy outlook in a separate tweet, noting that Twitter is still “definitely not financially sound yet” but “tends to be” going forward.

“A lot of work remains to be done to get there,” he said.

Twitter’s daily revenue fell 40% last month from January 2022 as many of the company’s top advertisers halted or cut spending, according to tech news site Platformer. Twitter’s ad revenue was estimated to have fallen 70% last December, year-on-year, Reuters reported.

During a meeting last November, Musk warned Twitter staffers that the company could declare bankruptcy if it failed to make up a shortfall. That same month, Musk said Twitter was losing $4 million a day after an exodus from major advertisers caused a “massive drop in revenue.” Twitter has since rolled out a revamped version of its “Blue” subscription service, where users can pay $8 a month for account verification and other perks, in a bid to boost revenue.

Musk also ordered strong cost-cutting measures on Twitter as part of a series of layoffs and a reduction in everything from office perks to concierge services at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. Twitter’s remaining employees had to “join” a “hard” work environment or leave the company.

Musk confirmed that the search for his successor as Twitter CEO is already underway, although he didn’t provide a specific timeline for when he will step down.

In addition to his responsibilities at Twitter, Musk was recently called to testify as a key witness in a lawsuit with Tesla shareholders. Shareholders had alleged that a 2018 tweet in which Musk claimed he had “secured funding” to take Tesla private caused them to suffer massive losses after the deal never materialized.

A San Francisco jury ruled in favor of Musk last Friday, determining that he was not responsible for misleading investors with the 2018 tweet.

Last year, Musk became the first person in history to lose $200 billion in personal wealth – a plunge that coincided with his expensive Twitter deal and a sharp drop in Tesla shares during a sell-off in the market. technology sector.

Tesla has since rebounded, with shares up 75% since the start of 2023. Last quarter, the company posted record earnings of $3.7 billion.