Twitter CEO Elon Musk said yesterday that the past few months have been “very tough,” but he said the social media company is “trending toward break-even now.
Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, tweeted that he had to “save Twitter from bankruptcy” while also fulfilling his duties at other companies.
I don’t wish this pain on anyone,” he wrote. Twitter still has challenges, but if we keep going, it’s trending toward breaking even. Many thanks to the public for their support!”
It’s been a rocky acquisition for Elon Musk since he bought the company for $44 billion late last year. Twitter’s daily revenue fell 40 percent year-over-year in January 2023, and hundreds of Twitter’s top advertisers have stopped or scaled back spending, Platformer reported. One company estimates that Twitter’s ad revenue fell as much as 70 percent year-over-year in December, according to Reuters.
Some of the changes Elon Musk has implemented on Twitter, such as reviving the accounts of controversial figures including Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi website, have led to brands leaving the platform and an outcry from civil rights leaders.
In a November tweet, Elon Musk acknowledged that the company had suffered a “significant drop in revenue” after advertisers suspended spending on the social media platform.
In late 2022, Elon Musk claimed on an episode of the All-In podcast that Twitter was no longer “on the fast track to bankruptcy,” but that it was still not “safe.
Since Elon Musk took over, Twitter has been sued for failing to pay various partners, vendors and former employees. For example, Florida-based Private Jet Services sued Twitter for failing to pay $197,725 for its transportation services. In another case, the landlord of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters office sued the company for allegedly failing to pay about $6.8 million in rent in December and January.
Under Elon Musk’s management, Twitter cut staff through massive layoffs and internal changes that forced many to resign, including ending a policy of working from home forever that was in place during former CEO Jack Dorsey’s time.
Labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan has filed hundreds of arbitration claims and a proposed class action lawsuit against Twitter on behalf of affected employees. According to a January tweet, she argued that former Twitter employees who were laid off or forced to resign should receive more severance pay than Elon Musk’s team offered.
In addition to cutting costs, the company is trying to create new revenue streams. In January, Twitter auctioned off everything from kitchen supplies to office equipment. The company also launched a new Twitter Blue subscription service in December, after Elon Musk canceled and delayed the service in November. Most recently, Elon Musk decided to charge developers for access to the company’s APIs and eliminate all free access.
