His biggest ideas have all blown up in his face: An $8 monthly subscription fee... the meaningless “X”... hav[ing] headlines stripped from article links... the rancid vibes Musk has cultivated by reinstating right-wing extremists and peddlers of misinformation previously banned from the platform.... Although it has shed millions of daily active users since Musk started tinkering with it, the endgame is more likely to come down to money. Seven banks led by Morgan Stanley hold some $13 billion in debt.... If X can’t keep making its $300 million quarterly interest payments, the financial firms may repossess it in order to recoup a fraction of their losses....
Why would the banks be able to do any better than Musk?
Who could fail to be entertained by such a saga of self-destruction?... [Y]es, the site will survive — but in a state of waking demise.... That can hardly be mistaken for a healthy, habitable public forum, let alone an asset that could one day turn a profit. It offers the illusion of life, however, in arguments, abuse, recriminations, and disgust....
"Death's door" is a funny phrase. It is — as the OED defines it — "A door imagined to stand between life and death." It goes back as far as 1515: "This wofull virgyne, complayned all alone As she that was, at dethes dore or brynke."
Did you know there's a place in Wisconsin called "Death's Door"? You may know Door County, but that came from the name for the water passage: "Death's Door."
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I have no idea about the finances of X, but I note that the people who want Musk to fail have been predicting its imminent demise for nearly a year now.
Dreams of My [Black] Stone
Rolling Stone, known stalwart of reputable reporting and fair dealing, the fearless clarion of the 'purest of motivations' among us......
I knew of death's door by Washington Island but I never knew that it was the origin of Door County. That's a great piece of trivia.
Rolling stone is still around?? Who reads THAT bullshit??
Banks wouldn't try to run it. They would sell it. Musk did not 100% finance the purchase. Of course X would file bankruptcy with Musk running it as debtor in possession and with plan to oay off banks.
Hey I've been to Deaths Door! Have a tee shirt that says "I survived Death's Door". Beautiful country (in the summer at least).
Rolling Stone is math challenged.
If X can’t keep making its $300 million quarterly interest payments
Elon has a net worth of around 250 Billion dollars. $300 million is 1/10 of 1% of his net worth. The total loan amount is around 5% of his net worth. Morgan Stanley knows he's good for it.
It reminds me of the line from Citizen Kane:
Kane: You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... sixty years.
In Elon's case it's 200+ years. He could also take Twitter public again while still retaining nominal control and recoup the loan amounts.
There is so much wishcasting in that article. They want him to fail so they can go back to the status quo. They keep hoping for the flash in the pan to take hold. Mastodon, Threads, whatever. Conservatives hoped for it with Truth Social.
I remember when Tesla was at Death’s Door a year ago. I made a lot of money after the left negative campaign failed to destroy that brand. Unfortunately, I can’t buy in this time.
"I have no idea about the finances of X, but I note that the people who want Musk to fail have been predicting its imminent demise for nearly a year now."
Many of the same people have been predicting the demise of the planet due to CAGW for some time now, with pretty much the same results.
So they've got that going for them, which is nice.
Does it say how Threads is doing for comparison purposes?
The rolling stone, that paragon of honesty. Bull****.
The new CEO says things are going great. Ad revenue is up.
Understand that Musk laid off all sorts of people. Different cost structure now.
Rolling Stone has no idea about the numbers of a private company and no way of finding out.
Amtrak loses a billion dollars a year as well, but Rolling Stone isn't saying that they are at "death's door".
Since its establishment in 1971, Amtrak has never turned a profit and predicts that it will continue to lose roughly $1 billion per year, leaving taxpayers to cover most of its losses, according to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Gee I hope not. It's been great fun this past year.
Yeah it's the Wild West. And that's bad, I guess. But redolent of freedom.
Allow free speech - get clobbered by the corrupt nazi left.
Golden rule: if the board is playing with the logo - the business is long gone…
One of the world’s most amazing “earned media” assets. A brand mark pre-installed on nearly every mobile phone in the world (check the Safari default bookmarks). An icon in the share panel of websites around the world. Over a decade of careful brand building.
RIP, I guess. Wonder how much enterprise value this incinerates…(And how quickly this decision might be reversed “due to popular demand.” Maybe he’s just trying to manufacture news cycle relevance.)
"According to Democrats who write for Rolling Stone"
Twitter has never been a profitable company, but I don't remember Rolling Stone or anybody else writing articles about it being at death's door.
Musk is trying a lot of different things, some help, some don't. It's unclear if he has a larger vision--I think he does, though it's rarely discussed and his spending so much time trying to generate interest through provocative tweeting isn't confidence inspiring.
Rolling Stone is not a reliable source. Even if it were, X's problems would stem from left wing activism among sponsors, not Musk mismanagement.
Lefties have no product to vend in the marketplace of ideas. Best to kill the marketplace.
They need it back quick so the truth doesn’t leak out…
It’s always safe to criticize Musk.
He’s fallen out of favor with the women of The Spew.
Shorter take: I do not like the current X, ergo it must be going broke.
If the market heeds the ides of Stones, and the value of X follows a progressive path, will the NY AG indict the African-American Musk?
Will she indict the executive staff and investors of Twitter who misrepresented the value of the company to increase returns during the sale?
Will the NY judge issue a gag order for Rolling Stones et al?
There is a theory going around Wall Street that Elon wants to renegotiate the loan terms. Much easier to do if the creditors believe they are over a barrel.
Yeah, it sounds like they have no idea what they're talking about, but want it to be true.
I wish Musk, and Trump, had been more quietly competent, instead of drawing attention and enemies.
“If it’s in Rolling Stone it must be true.” Said no one ever.
I realize I might be in the minority but I like the headlines being removed. It's clean. If you feel an article is worth reading, tell me and then I can decide if I want to click. The headline usually doesn't do it for me.
Sounds like now is a good time to buy into twitter stock.
Elon Musk Just Did This In Ukraine And It Could Change EVERYTHING
The [mainstream] press, Biden, [ethnic] Spring(s), CAIR, civil wrongs, redistributive change, and more reasons to cancel, gag Musk, Trump et al.
Funny, I just read an article yesterday that X is on its way to profitability. Is it true? Beats me. Interestingly, the ADL just backed down, so that's something.
Rolling Stone does not exactly have a reputation for credibility, and they are very vulnerable to believing things that confirm what they desperately want to believe. Maybe Musk has been assaulting co-eds at the University of Virginia while high on ivermectin?
"What does the author want to be true?"
Banks would not have radically altered the platform by trying to cultivate christo-fascist shitheels as the core Twitter user group?
Musk backrupts twitter? Stupid banks holding the bag?
Mush runs for president, constitution be damned.
"Twitter Is at Death’s Door, One Year After Elon Musk’s Takeover."
According to Rolling Stone.
No need to read farther. We’re supposed to believe Rolling Stone this time because … why?
If you count on any magazine to give you objective detailed financial reporting its Rolling stone magazine.
LOL.
Twitter is being strangled by an ADL lead boycott. Leftists love it. But they will scream like bashsees if anyone tries to boycott a leftist organization.
Its impossible to care what they say or do about anything.
If you count on any magazine to give you objective detailed financial reporting its Rolling stone magazine.
LOL.
Twitter is being strangled by an ADL lead boycott. Leftists love it. But they will scream like bashsees if anyone tries to boycott a leftist organization.
Its impossible to care what they say or do about anything.
Rolling Stone wants X under Musk to fail. Did they want Twitter under Dorsey and friends to fail?
They can spare us the rancid drivel about courting the far-right. Translation = how dare Musk not bend this social media platform to serve the cultural-political left.
"Seven banks led by Morgan Stanley hold some $13 billion in debt after backing Musk’s blockbuster deal last year, and the company itself is presumably worth much less at this point — even according to his own math. If X can’t keep making its $300 million quarterly interest payments, the financial firms may repossess it in order to recoup a fraction of their losses."
The financial ignorance in the last sentence is staggering. The banks can "repossess" only if X is in violation of loan covenants, and if the writer knows what those are (for example, negative GAAP losses for one year), he should show his work. Also, many lenders won't call a loan default, even if they technically can under the covenants, as long as the borrower is making its payments. Banks don't want to seize assets if they can help it.
Twitter had little in the way of tangible assets when it was bought, so Elon Musk had to post Tesla stock as collateral for the loan. Tesla is slightly higher than it was a year ago, so it's unlikely Elon has had to put up more shares.
In a rising interest-rate environment X may well be experiencing pain if it has variable-rate loans, but it's nothing compared to the multi-year cash burns of Tesla and SpaceX before they became successful. Elon Musk may well walk away from X in the end, but financial losses will only be a secondary reason.
Why would the banks be able to do any better than Musk?
No, banks would sell it to someone to thinks they can do a better job. Probably at a loss.
Why would the banks be able to do any better than Musk?
No, banks would sell it to someone to thinks they can do a better job. Probably at a loss.
Rolling Stone has not been right about much in the last decade or so. Major stories- wrong. Made up.
I'd put my money on X surviving longer than Rolling Stone.
Wishful musings by Rolling Stone.
Oh Brer Rabbit tell us more
Why, oh why, would we believe anything written in Rolling Stone?
Also and always in play:
"If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem."
-- J. Paul Getty
Fun Fact #1:
Tesla was founded and ran for 17 years before turning any profits.
Source: Inside EVs
Fun Fact #2:
Amazon finally turned a profit in 2003, which was nine years after being founded and seven years after going public.
Source: Inc dot com
Fun Fact #3:
The Deep State is desperately trying to destroy Elon Musk
Source: My fucking eyes.
"Rich said...
Golden rule: if the board is playing with the logo - the business is long gone…"
[citation needed]
Say Ann, asking a serious question here. If the comments are moderated, why are there so many double posts everyday?
As I noted a year ago:
Q: How do you make a small fortune with Twitter?
A: Start with a large fortune.
"His biggest ideas have all blown up in his face: An $8 monthly subscription fee... " Brings in cash and was probably never intended to fully finance the company.
"the meaningless X..." Kind of a weird decision, but how has it blown up in his face?
"hav[ing] headlines stripped from article links..." I don't like it, but it just happened so it's too soon to tell if it's blown up in his face.
"the rancid vibes Musk has cultivated by reinstating right-wing extremists and peddlers of misinformation previously banned from the platform." Oh no, people with opinions I don't like are on the platform. And it's a little rich (or Rich) for the Rolling Stone to complain about misinformation.
That said, if the banks did take over Twitter, they would probably sell it to some group fronting for the intelligence agencies.
I confess it never occurred to me the world's smartest man would pick a public fight with the ADL to drive advertisers away, but maybe the world's smartest man always dreamed of running a $43 billion nonprofit.
The change to X was stupid.
"Twitter" was a word universally adopted by everyone.
People twitted and they read tweets.
No one ever X'd (or Xed) anyone.
Or ever will.
Dumb error.
Methinks it's gathering moss.
"According to the Rolling Stone" - people are living under the delusion that the media are something other than democrat propaganda.
X was the disinformation/propaganda outlet for democrats until Musk bought it.
I suspect bankers knew this would go poorly (particularly when rates went against them), but bit the bullet in hopes of landing an eventual SpaceX IPO. They see it as a Musk relationship, not a Twitter one.
I don't think people realized what Musk did... the 'X'ed out Twitter... he wanted it DEAD. And it is dead.
He has over 250 BILLION... he didn't care. He wanted it DEAD... and it is dead.
I doubt that there are very many people that know the financial condition of "X", but Mr. Musk certainly has the resources to keep it solvent, if he chooses to do so.
Also, TeaBagHag demonstrates that he/she is the lowest form of commentor on this blog.
This is the passage that tells all.
"the rancid vibes Musk has cultivated by reinstating right-wing extremists and peddlers of misinformation previously banned from the platform...."
Yes, former Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi left to go work with Musk (and Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger, et al) to scoop Rolling Stone and every other so-called news source with the biggest scandal and story of the year - about the government campaign to censor legitimate debates that the government did not want debated. Perhaps Rolling Stone is still mad about how Taibbi has one-upped them. You'd think as a source of news, supposedly, even as occasional peddlers of "misinformation," they'd have even just a small appreciation for how Taibbi and Musk have done their work for them and protected their rights for them. Such ingratitude.
I wish Musk, and Trump, had been more quietly competent, instead of drawing attention and enemies.
Yeah I'm sure the Left wouldn't have spent millions of dollars and years of time attacking either Trump or Musk if they had simply been quietly competent.
Rolling Stone wants to F with X like they’re on a glass tabletop at a UVa frat house.
Rolling Stone wants to F with X like they’re on a glass tabletop at a UVa frat house.
Elon buying Twitter was not like Jeff Bezos buying WaPo.
Unlike Twitter, WaPo has a cabal going for themselves.
Blogger SFTC CHUMP said...
Why would the banks be able to do any better than Musk?
No, banks would sell it to someone to thinks they can do a better job. Probably at a loss.
Probably at a loss? Most certainly at a loss. And the banks would take an absolute bath. My interpretation of Musk's acquisition is he was pretty much the only person willing to buy Twitter at anything other than a fire sale price. The banks very much do not want to foreclose on this loan unless they had absolutely no choice. At this point, they are nowhere close to that possibility. The only reason it could happen now is the banks value politics over profitability and do it intentionally to hurt Musk, possibly at government urging.
This is similar to how Trump would take out loans for his businesses. At some point the banks were so deep that they really had no choice to accommodate Trump or be ruined. They were rewarded for that as Trump did pay his loans, though not necessarily on the original terms. That's what makes the trial in New York right now so absurd. Banks wished they had borrowers like Trump. Everyone got paid!
Musk has "reinstated right-wing extremists and peddlers of misinformation previously banned from the platform". Is there another platform that can make the same claim? I'd say Musk's biggest exposure is monopolizing a market.
Musk has "reinstated right-wing extremists and peddlers of misinformation previously banned from the platform". Is there another platform that can make the same claim? I'd say Musk's biggest exposure is monopolizing a market.
Porte de Morte is the passage between Lake Michigan and Green Bay. When the strait is named that you may want to take a different route.
I predict that x will go bankrupt the same day the walls close in on our beloved president emeritus.
I also predict that day will not come in our lifetimes. Or even our grandchildren'lifetimes.
John Henry
Ah yes, Rolling Stone, purveyors of such fine wishful thinking articles as "A Rape on Campus". I'll take the "truth" of this article under advisement.
Stephen: "The financial ignorance in the last sentence is staggering."
And those even more ignorant, LLR Rich, jim and readering chime in to join the Ignorance pile up.
Can Dumb Lefty Mark, LLR-democratical C****, LLR lonejustice and gadfly be far behind?
I keep seeing articles like this, but then I go to Twitter, and it seems normal and fine. Bunch of journalists throwing pennies in a fountain making wishes.
rcocean: "Twitter is being strangled by an ADL lead boycott. Leftists love it. But they will scream like bashsees if anyone tries to boycott a leftist organization."
At the time of sale to Musk, twitter was losing $3.5B per year.
After just under 1 year they are progressing rapidly to profitability and operating at a projected $1B or so operating loss for this first year WHILE completely rewriting the code, rolling out value add capabilities the old failing op didnt dream of.
All the while fitting into an X future vision of WeChat where the vast majority of revenues will derive from service fees.
And as to the lefty/ADL politically driven boycott of X, that is already collapsing with even the ADL resuming advertising under threat of legal action for their previous lie-driven campaign: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/04/tech/adl-makes-peace-with-x/index.html
Can't wait for more moronic comments from the Small Lefty Brain types pretending to discuss business strategy, ops and finance. Should be fun.
Sadly, If Twitter dies then it means censorship works. It will be seen as an endorsement of the trends we find ourselves attempting to hold back. The danger of censorship has always been envisioned as a problem coming from government. What we’re dealing with now is more formidable, a partnership of government and private companies to gate-keep information as they see fit.
Rolling Stone deadnames X.
Anybody else think X will be around longer than Rolling Stone?
"This wofull virgyne, complayned all alone As she that was, at dethes dore or brynke."
Sometimes, I think people in the old days spelled words wrong on purpose, just to annoy modern readers.
It's Rolling Stone, Ann. To paraphrase "China Town."
Rolling Stone wouldn't be my first choice for trustworthy business/financial reporting
I see a whole lot of "here's what I learned in my college business class" in that. But I think of Rodney Dangerfield in 'Back To School" when the business professor was laying out his mythical company.
Thing is, Musk is even more different. He tries and tosses, iterative innovation. He doesn't get a big idea and fight to keep it going when it falters like corporate drones.
Funny, no one is talking about Zuckerberg's big idea failure, his X replacement. What is it called?
Just substitute X for Christ in Christ Lag in Todesbanden.
Bach
It would be a good upbeat Twitter theme song, if you ask me.
This will age well. Musk should buy Rolling Stone.
SpaceX was at death’s door when the first two Falcon One rockets failed. The third attempt succeeded carrying a small Malaysian satellite for a fee.
Musk had put most of his PayPal money into Falcon One.
SpaceX right now is the only viable satellite launching service. It doesn't matter how much money Twitter is losing right now, Musk is making 10 times that putting government satellites into orbit and getting T Mobile to pay for cellular service via low orbit satellites.
Rolling Stone should stick their their strengths, being fabricating bogus rape allegations.
"Funny, no one is talking about Zuckerberg's big idea failure, his X replacement. What is it called?"
I believe it's called Thongs, which makes sense given that he's a sexist pig. It's why the Left love him.
JKBrown: "Funny, no one is talking about Zuckerberg's big idea failure, his X replacement. What is it called?"
Who can forget the heady and over the top giddyness of Dumb Lefty Mark when Threads first launched their X-Killer App?!
LOL
Oh how Dumb Lefty Mark rejoiced!
That lasted about 4 weeks and then....poof!
what leftwing d-bag pays to keep Rolling Stool Floater afloat?
Reuter's media columnist says that X is really only worth $8Bn.
Yep, they're trying to Mar-a-Logo Musk.
Gonna be fun when this tactic gets turned around on them.
Assume RS is correct and X closes soon. That at least eliminates one of the major purveyors of Democrat politcal propaganda in the 2024 election, compared with 2020.
Could it have been done for less than the tens of billions involved with X? It wasn't my money, so I'm OK with the cost of killing Twitter.
Yeah, and that frat was guilty, right?
Why TF should I even give something written by RS credence?
Hmmm, and absolutely no mention of "LEFT-wing extremists and peddlers of misinformation". How does that work, again?
Not a single verifiable financial number in this rolling stone load of manure. But feewings. The Rolling Stones has as much credibility as the Hillary Clinton for President National Review does.
And as far as changing the brand name being a certain death I might agree if it were anyone but musk. Let’s also count the recent brand names that foretold doom for the companies. There’s that alphabet thing? Also that meta thing.
> The third attempt succeeded carrying a small Malaysian satellite for a fee.
The third attempt also failed, we lost a payload on that one.
"Twitter" was a word universally adopted by everyone.
People twitted and they read tweets.
No one ever X'd (or Xed) anyone.
Or ever will.
Dumb error.
I don't know why Musk changed the name - though the comment up thread about how he wanted to X it out would be an interesting resonance.
But in reading the above, I thought of Ma Bell and Standard Oil/Esso. Yes, both of those were broken up by government action, but I don't see how that changes the fact that those were much longer-lived names of brands in much more common use than Twitter. And people adjusted.
OTOH, no one (besides ridiculously pedantic fans) calls Star Wars IV: A New Hope anything but Star Wars.
Basically ISTM that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Rolling Stone went bankrupt after a defamation lawsuit.
Why should they lecture us on "misinformation..."
Rolling Stone went bankrupt after a defamation lawsuit.
Why should they lecture us on "misinformation..."
Seems like when I scroll through X, there are a lot of ads so some income is coming in. Even if Elon had to cover a $$ shortfall in those bank payments, X could last forever.
But in reading the above, I thought of Ma Bell and Standard Oil/Esso.
My first thought was Datsun becoming Nissan.
One of my great regrets is that, a long time ago, I gave a subscription to Rolling Stone to my baby brother. He had an interest in music and I thought I was giving him a music magazine. I had no knowledge of their political content. Ruined my brother. He became a very bitter type of democrat.
If the WaPo is the nations,(booming anouncers voice) "High School Newspaper of Record!" then The Rolling Stone is the nations neighborhood weekly shopper newspaper of record.
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