I can't speak for why someone else thinks this, and I certainly cannot read his mind, so this is just a general comment about buying something with cash or equi

I can't speak for why someone else thinks this, and I certainly cannot read his mind, so this is just a general comment about buying something with cash or equity versus debt. If you buy with debt, you have to pay every month (or year, or whatever). So obviously you have to either have deep pockets to pay out of pocket, or generate more cash flow, and you have to do it NOW, because the debt must be serviced now. If you buy with cash and/or equity, you take on an opportunity cost, but you can afford to make longer-term investments, and you can afford to take your time with cost-cutting or other measures. The pressure to recoup your investment is certainly there, but the urgency to generate cash-flow in the short term is not. --- All that being said, if Musk doesn't think Twitter investing in initiatives that will take a while to pay off, but he does think it needs short-term moves like firing everyone in sight and putting Trump back on the platform and getting rid of pesky "activists" who think "freedom of speech" includes telling advertisers that they face boycotts... Well then, debt is clearly the winning move.