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Is Twitter losing $4m per day his fault? As in the acquisition was a LEVERAGED BUY-OUT and he scared off advertisers at a advertising summit that would have loc

Is Twitter losing $4m per day his fault? As in the acquisition was a LEVERAGED BUY-OUT and he scared off advertisers at a advertising summit that would have locked-in adrev for the year of 2023. When you borrow money at an obscene interest rate during a leveraged-buyout, the fastest way to pay your creditors is to cut headcount if history serves correctly. I have seen no numbers indicating they were losing anywhere near that per day looking at their published financials.

zimpenfish 4y ago
> I have seen no numbers indicating they were losing anywhere near that per day looking at their published financials. They seem to have lost $221M in 2021[1] which would be ~600k/day but that seems to have been influenced by an $800M lawsuit loss - that would imply they had (theoretical) profits of ~$580M for 2021. [1] https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-posts-loss-2021-stock-130128001.html https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-posts-loss-2021-stock-1301280...
- NickRandom 4y ago
  Which implies that Twitter's profits were $1.5M/day rather than the $4M/day loss claimed by Musk. Something seems off there but I can't figure out which figure most accurately reflects reality. If in fact Twitter wasn't haemorrhaging money it casts a distinctly unpleasant pall on the reasons for the 50% cut to headcount.
  - zimpenfish 4y ago
    > rather than the $4M/day loss claimed by Musk. I suspect he might be shading things - AFAIK they have $4M/day loss now because of the $1bn debt obligation he loaded with the leveraged buyout. Like saying you have to cut your workforce because 3 of your 4 factories burnt down when you set those fires yourself...
    - hezralig 4y ago
      After months of trying to get out of the deal he took the equivalent of a pay-day loan, funded by multiple creditors, to complete the acquisition. I am shocked there are as many people here not taking the time to look into the financials of that deal and are assuming Musk is some sort paragon of finance.

zimpenfish 4y ago

> I have seen no numbers indicating they were losing anywhere near that per day looking at their published financials. They seem to have lost $221M in 2021[1] which would be ~600k/day but that seems to have been influenced by an $800M lawsuit loss - that would imply they had (theoretical) profits of ~$580M for 2021. [1] https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-posts-loss-2021-stock-130128001.html https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-posts-loss-2021-stock-1301280...

NickRandom 4y ago
Which implies that Twitter's profits were $1.5M/day rather than the $4M/day loss claimed by Musk. Something seems off there but I can't figure out which figure most accurately reflects reality. If in fact Twitter wasn't haemorrhaging money it casts a distinctly unpleasant pall on the reasons for the 50% cut to headcount.
- zimpenfish 4y ago
  > rather than the $4M/day loss claimed by Musk. I suspect he might be shading things - AFAIK they have $4M/day loss now because of the $1bn debt obligation he loaded with the leveraged buyout. Like saying you have to cut your workforce because 3 of your 4 factories burnt down when you set those fires yourself...
  - hezralig 4y ago
    After months of trying to get out of the deal he took the equivalent of a pay-day loan, funded by multiple creditors, to complete the acquisition. I am shocked there are as many people here not taking the time to look into the financials of that deal and are assuming Musk is some sort paragon of finance.