Elon Musk discusses his ‘painful’ Twitter journey in an interview with BBC
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More than six months after he agreed to buy out Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk, the world's second-richest person, has now confirmed what many thought was the reason for the purchase - the judge would have made him do it otherwise. Musk confirmed this during a last-minute interview with the BBC.
Last April, Elon Musk wrote to the Twitter board of directors, offering them $44 billion for the social media platform and taking it private. Soon after the board decided to go ahead with the deal, Musk pulled out of the deal, leading to a legal battle, that Musk looked set to lose. Before the case went to trial, Musk agreed to honor his original offer for the buyout.
Life as Twitter CEO
The days and weeks following the acquisition were a roller coaster ride for employees at the company as the company's strength shrunk from 8,500 employees to barely 1,500 now. Musk, however, justified the decision by stating that the company was being run like a non-profit organization and would soon run into the ground, and there would be no jobs for anyone left.
According to Musk, the company had only "four months to live" and needed "drastic action." The heavy-cost-cutting measures are now bearing fruit, according to Musk, as the company is roughly breaking even.
The new CEO of Twitter is amazing pic.twitter.com/yBqWFUDIQH
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 15, 2023
The Twitter CEO also said that advertisers were now returning to the platform, and even though the pain level has been extremely high during this time, he does not regret buying the social media website. Musk was also admittedly open that mistakes were made along the way but is confident that the company is headed to a good place now.
Musk also refused to sell Twitter if someone offered him $44 billion today, even though the company's valuation has dropped by half unless the person was committed to telling the truth as he was.
Musk did not specify much on which direction the company would take, especially now that we know that Twitter Inc. has ceased to exist. The last-minute interview was arranged after BBC tech reporter James Clayton wrote to Twitter regarding the organization tag that was used with the BBC.
To his surprise, Clayton received a response from Musk himself and then requested the CEO for an interview, who responded about doing it a few hours later. After the interview, Musk went to posting memes and jokes about the BBC.
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