It almost seems like Musk hates the company that he inherited (or its existence before it became his) so much so that he intends a scorched earth approach to everything the company touched, right on down to rent in San Francisco and around the world, intending to take the rent matter to court, almost surely claiming that the old company paid too much, or some excuse muscle the money back for better terms. Additionally, in a similar way, Musk is refusing to pay at least some severance agreements.
He is doing what he’s done in other companies he owns, especially Tesla, trying to create a sense of chaos or brinksmanship to get workers convinced that if they’re not putting in 14 hours a day, the company will fold tomorrow. He seems to be doing the exact same thing at Twitter. There is one problem, though. The two situations are entirely different. Musk created Tesla as a start-up in a field it had to itself, the same as Space X. In Twitter, he is moving into a company already settled into a developed field, and it’s possible it’s not working. From the New York Times:
Over the past two weeks, Elon Musk has shaken up Twitter’s legal department, disbanded a council that advised the social media company on safety issues and is continuing to take drastic steps to cut costs.
Mr. Musk appears to be gearing up for legal battles at Twitter. He and his team have revamped Twitter’s legal department and pushed out one of his closest advisers in the process. They have also instructed employees to not pay vendors in anticipation of potential litigation, the people said.
To cut costs, Twitter has not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its global offices for weeks. Twitter’s leaders have also discussed the consequences of denying severance payments to thousands of people who have been laid off since the takeover.
Musk is playing with fire. He has already lost billions upon billions due to his impulse buy, not so much because he overpaid for Twitter, but because his purchase of Twitter and now obsession with social media has caused Tesla’s share price and market cap to dive off the edge of the horizon. Tesla, by far, makes up the greatest share of Tesla’s wealth. A lot of Musk’s decisions have alienated Twitter users, turned off by the product he is putting out. Those users will not be Tesla buyers, especially with so much competition now. So Musk may be running two companies into the ground.
It is possible to be a brilliant visionary and start companies with a mission as the first in their field but be a sh*tty business CEO. He is playing for very high stakes and moving incredibly fast. It could all fall within two years. Sometimes it seems Musk should hire someone to protect him from himself.
Small correction: Musk is as much of a “founder” of Tesla as Ray Croc was of McDonald’s. Two other guys started up Tesla and he muscled them out of the way early on.
As to what he’s doing with Twitter, parallels to an abusive spouse are more than warranted, I think. Musk actually spent the last year before the buyout trying to get out of it. Now that he’s stuck with it, it’s like the only useful thing he can do with it is destroy it. Never mind it’s destroying his own wealth in the process.
From all this, I am forced to conclude reports of Musk’s “genius” have been grossly exaggerated.
It is so good to hear from you Barshark. Whether he “founded” Tesla or stole it, he was in early, as compared to Twitter. I think he’s just about to break it. Dems have had enough. Even our timelines are littered with maga junk.
You want a saner alternative to Twitter you can maybe jump to, Jason, I’d recommend checking out Spoutible, brainchild of Christopher Bouzy, founder of BotSentinel. Won’t be operational until January but what I’ve seen makes it look like Twitter 2.0.
His major talent is for PR. He makes himself the brand of a company. At this point he has,alienated anyone who would want to.buy an electric vehicle. If I won a,Tesla, it’d be up.for auction. on eBay with a low starting bid of $30 for a car that sells for 100K. If I got $50K for it, I’d be shocked. Too.many people hate him.
Not paying rent will get them kicked out of the buildings they’re leasing. Not paying severance will get them hit by NLRB action. And I hear he’s also not paying bills put on company cards before he took over – that’s also going to get legal action, because he assumed those debts when he took over.
TBH, I really don’t see his endgame here except to maybe get the former board to pay? I rally don’t, maybe he thinks he can impose his will
I doubt he’s thinking myself, Jason, more like reacting. He doesn’t know what to do, so he’s trying to use the “tried and true” in a situation where the latter is useless.
The only angle I can figure is that of working the refs, just like TFG. He does all this egregious shit at the same time that he’s swinging hard right, so he can then claim that all the lawsuits and enforcement actions are just attempts by his detractors to take him down.
Musk didn’t start Tesla, he acquired it. Just like Twitter.
Also, his family made their fortune in the mining business, so he runs all of his companies accordingly.