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If the bot volume was high, then it would be an error to reveal it now post-transaction as it would harm the perceived value of your company for a future IPO or

If the bot volume was high, then it would be an error to reveal it now post-transaction as it would harm the perceived value of your company for a future IPO or acquirers. Talking up the bot problem was only valuable during the transaction as a means of price pressure. Even revealing that “there was a bot problem and we solved it” creates meaningful risk because it still drives down the credibility of the platform as a whole. Ideally as owner of the company you would want it’s pre-acquisition state to be perceived as “low quality / not credible” and post acquisition to be the inverse of that. As much as we would love to know the true bot count, I suspect we are not going to hear about it anytime soon. And this is not true for the current leadership, it’s true for the previous leadership as well. Any true bot count reveal if above a certain margin from what was sold to the public is detrimental to the value of the company.

mikkergp 4y ago
But you're right, it's not Musk's fault the bots are high, or the numbers are wrong? If he really wants to increase trust in the platform, why not just be honest about it? He said himself he didn't buy the platform to make money, so why lie about it to protect the "value of the company"
- sn0w_crash 4y ago
  I agree it would make them look better to reveal some truth about bots. Hell, even if it wasn’t true, they could even lie about it at this point, right? These are immoral deceitful business people acting purely out of self interest, according to the rolling stone. But I maintain that It would be a critical error for a business owner to do anything that harms the potential value of the business. In this case revealing any “truth” about bot volume would do so because it would adjust the true $/user value the company has maintained for years. Re: your question on motivations - This is a business man. He can say whatever he wants, unless he donates the company to a non profit I must assume he has purchased it for extracting maximum value. Whether it be from a future IPO or a potential sale. The very fact that they are trying to optimize burn and generate revenue should tell us they are dressing it up for a future exit.

mikkergp 4y ago

But you're right, it's not Musk's fault the bots are high, or the numbers are wrong? If he really wants to increase trust in the platform, why not just be honest about it? He said himself he didn't buy the platform to make money, so why lie about it to protect the "value of the company"

sn0w_crash 4y ago
I agree it would make them look better to reveal some truth about bots. Hell, even if it wasn’t true, they could even lie about it at this point, right? These are immoral deceitful business people acting purely out of self interest, according to the rolling stone. But I maintain that It would be a critical error for a business owner to do anything that harms the potential value of the business. In this case revealing any “truth” about bot volume would do so because it would adjust the true $/user value the company has maintained for years. Re: your question on motivations - This is a business man. He can say whatever he wants, unless he donates the company to a non profit I must assume he has purchased it for extracting maximum value. Whether it be from a future IPO or a potential sale. The very fact that they are trying to optimize burn and generate revenue should tell us they are dressing it up for a future exit.