Twitter CEO Elon Musk said on Sunday that the past few months had been “very tough,” but that the social media company was “going to breakeven now.” Musk, CEO of Tesla said in a tweet that SpaceX “must save Twitter from bankruptcy,” while performing duties at other companies.
Since acquiring the company for $44 billion late last year, it’s been a rocky takeover for “Mr. Tweet,” a nickname Musk recently embraced. According to tech newsletter Platformer, Twitter’s daily revenue was down 40% year-over-year in January 2023, and hundreds of Twitter’s top advertisers have halted or pulled back on spending. One firm estimated that Twitter’s ad revenue decline was as steep as 70% in December, year-over-year, Reuters reported. Some of the changes that Musk implemented at Twitter, like restoring the accounts of controversial figures including neo-Nazi website founder Andrew Anglin, resulted in the brand’s departure from the platform, and an outcry from civil rights leaders.
In a November tweet, Musk acknowledged that the company suffered a “significant drop in revenue” after advertisers stopped spending on social media platforms. In late 2022, Musk claimed, “Twitter was no longer a shortcut to bankruptcy but it was still safe.” Twitter investors argued that it was not.
Twitter has been sued for nonpayment by various partners, vendors, and former employees since its acquisition by Elon Musk. As an example, Florida-based Private His Jet Service sued Twitter for failing to pay him $197,725 for transportation services. In another case, the landlord of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters sued the company for failing to pay about $6.8 million in rent in December and in January.
