Twitter Inc CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday said that most advertisers that abandoned Twitter Inc after his US$44 billion acquisition have returned, suggesting that the struggling platform is regaining its footing.
Musk, speaking in a rambling Twitter Spaces interview with the BBC that played out before millions of listeners, reaffirmed that Twitter is operating at about breakeven and could become cashflow-positive as soon as this quarter.
More than 3 million concurrent users tuned in to the almost two-hour conversation, which at times became combative as the billionaire turned the tables on his interviewer and questioned the BBC’s track record on everything from COVID-19 misinformation to hate speech.
Photo: AFP
Twitter reported positive cashflow in July last year, its last earnings disclosure before the culmination of the tumultuous saga of Musk’s acquisition.
The company was saddled with billions of dollars of debt from the deal, so restoring it to profitability might go some way to validating the drastic cuts in staff and facilities that Musk made upon completion — although he has also been accused of failing to pay various company expenses, from office rents to former employees’ severance and former executives’ legal fees.
Musk said he only completed his purchase of Twitter last year because he was legally forced to do so, after the company’s board sued him to close the deal.
He later added that he probably would not sell Twitter even if offered the same price today.
Musk said that most advertisers were back on the platform, following an exodus triggered by mass firings and technical glitches that prompted concerns about the potential proliferation of hate speech, fake news and other objectionable content.
“Almost all of them have either come back or said they’re coming back,” Musk said.
Much of Tuesday’s session, which Musk said was hastily thrown together after a BBC reporter sent him an inquiry, touched on familiar ground. Topics included Musk’s thoughts about firing thousands, about which he said that it had to be done, his greatest challenges in the past six months, which he said were shutting one of three datacenters, and constantly shooting himself in the foot with impulsive Twitter posts, about which he said: “I need bulletproof shoes.”
The executive, whose other day jobs include running Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp, was evasive at times and brutally direct at others. Most of the questions centered on his thinking since launching a bid for the social media platform last year.
With respect to Twitter’s future, Musk said he does not see any social network surviving without paid verification. He was addressing criticism about Twitter charging US$8 for the blue check marks that once conferred legitimacy of organizations and public figures.
He reiterated his position that the payment barrier was the only workable way to avert misinformation bots swamping an online platform.
In a post-interview question-and-answer session with listeners, Musk also addressed Twitter’s merger with a newly formed shell firm called X Corp.
“Yes, there is something more to it,” the billionaire said.
He said he still wants to build X, an everything app akin to Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (騰訊) WeChat.
The meandering discussion touched on serious topics, such as the handling of sexism, to the absurd, with the billionaire repeatedly claiming his dog is now Twitter’s chief executive officer.
“I am not the CEO of Twitter. My dog is the CEO of Twitter,” Musk said with a laugh. “He’s got a black turtleneck, what more do you need?”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS