Twitter Is Blaming Elon Musk For A Big Problem
Unsurprisingly, Twitter is blaming SpaceX founder Elon Musk for a lot of its woes from a dismal financial quarter.
Elon Musk is complicated. On the one hand, the serial entrepreneur is a leading technology figurehead known for revolutionizing business practices and transforming existing platforms to reach new heights. On the other hand, Musk is known for his controversial antics that seem to get the billionaire in hot water time and time again. His latest effort to buy (then renege on his offer to buy) Twitter may be the most troublesome for the South African-born tycoon, as the company is currently blaming Elon Musk for their ongoing financial woes.
According to a report by Deadline, Twitter is citing Elon Musk as one of the reasons that their second-quarter earnings failed to hit their revenue forecast. In their second-quarter earnings call, Twitter announced that the company took a $270 million loss from a $66 million profit the year prior. Twitter had revenue of $1.18 billion, which is markedly down 1% year-over-year. In addition to the recent confusion with Elon Musk, the organization is blaming current economic conditions as the reason for their loss.
Elon Musk announced his unsolicited intention to take over Twitter a few months ago, but now the matter is being played out in the courts after Musk decided against the acquisition. According to CNBC, Musk notified Twitter’s board of directors that he was terminating the $44 billion deal. This is concerning Musk’s interpretation of Twitter’s supposed tactics of keeping fake bot accounts on the social media platform, a move that Twitter’s board chair Bret Taylor disagreed with. Taylor is steadfast as of this month in closing the deal, even suing Musk for backing out of the agreement, as The New York Times reported.
With a possible recession on the horizon for many American households, it may not be out of the question for Twitter to blame the economy for their current financial dismay. Elon Musk is no stranger to controversy, as he has often used Twitter’s platform to promote rumors of COVID-19 falsehoods and conspiracy theories. After first stating on social media that he and his family would never receive the COVID vaccine, he confirmed to his over 100 million Twitter followers that he ended up getting the vaccine in December 2021, according to WebMD.
Elon Musk broke onto the business scene by co-founding a software company that was eventually purchased by Compaq. He then went on to build a business that would ultimately become PayPal, which he sold to eBay in 2002. For most business magnates, buying and selling businesses to the tune of over $1 billion would be enough to retire, but Musk seems to thrive on creating businesses from the ground up. After selling PayPal to eBay, he founded SpaceX, an aerospace company with the intended goal of transporting services in space. But his role in Tesla’s development and leadership techniques made Elon Musk a household name, for which he was named Time Magazine’s 2021 Person of the Year. That same year, Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live, where he was the host for an evening in May. According to USA Today, Elon Musk is currently the wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $219 billion.
