All the jolts for Twitter under Musk’s leadership
First the escape from Twitter of top managers who deal with security and privacy, then the warnings of the Federal Trade Commission which said it was following what is happening with "deep concern". And Musk replies: risk of bankruptcy
It's only been two weeks since Elon Musk closed the $ 44 billion acquisition of Twitter, and there's no shortage of jolts for the San Francisco-based company.
During the first meeting with employees on Thursday, Musk said he couldn't rule out the microblogging company's bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Meanwhile, the company witnessed the exodus of some top Twitter executives on the same day, including privacy and security executives.
Also on Thursday, the US Federal Trade Commission, a leading consumer protection regulator, said it "is following recent developments on Twitter with deep concern." In 2011, Twitter signed an agreement pledging to better protect user data, which the authority continues to oversee.
Meanwhile, US President Biden even spoke out on the Twitter affair on Wednesday, claiming that Elon Musk's relations with Saudi Arabia are "worthy of attention".
Musk has acquired the social platform with the financial support of non-US investors, including Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, Qatar Holding, which is part of the Qatar Investment Authority, and Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the world, whose holding company is registered in the Cayman Islands.
Not only that, this very deal has left Twitter's finances in a precarious position according to credit experts.
All the details.
THE NEW CHIEF TWIT WARNING
In his first corporate communication, Musk warned that Twitter would not be able to "survive the impending economic downturn". "We need about half of our revenue to be subscriptions," Musk pointed out in the email.
The warning came during a tumultuous start to Musk's reign at the social media company: a two-week period in which he fired half of Twitter's staff, got most of the top executives out, and ordered the remaining employees to stop working from home .
THE EXODUS OF TOP MANAGERS
But in addition to the layoffs ordered from above, there are also managers who have independently decided to leave Twitter.
Yoel Roth, who oversaw Twitter's response to combat hate speech, disinformation and spam on the service, resigned Thursday, according to Reuters .
But the day began with the resignations of three senior security officials – chief information security officer Lea Kissner, chief privacy officer Damien Kieran, and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty – who prompted warnings from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States reports the Guardian .
THE LENS OF THE FTC
The FTC said it was viewing Twitter with "deep concern" after the three privacy and compliance officers resigned. These resignations potentially put Twitter at risk of violating regulatory orders.
In May, Twitter agreed to pay $ 150 million to settle the FTC's allegations of misusing users' private information. Under the company's agreement with the FTC, Twitter is required to perform privacy reviews before making any changes to its products.
MUSK'S SPENDING REVIEW
After taking control of the company on October 27, Musk said the company was losing more than $ 4 million a day. But advertisers started running away once he took control.
And to make money, Musk has started charging $ 8 a month for the Twitter Blue service which will include a blue tick verification.
WEIGH THE DEBT
Also, if the delisting took place after the Twitter takeover (so it's out of the control of public markets), Musk has loaded the company with nearly $ 13 billion in debt. Therefore, Twitter will have to pay interest totaling nearly $ 1.2 billion over the next 12 months. Payments exceed the latest cash flow revealed by Twitter, which amounted to $ 1.1 billion at the end of June, Reuters points out.
THE ATTENTION OF THE PRESIDENT USA BIDEN
Finally, the Twitter acquisition has raised concerns that Musk may come under pressure from countries seeking to control online speech. For US President Joe Biden, Elon Musk's relations with some foreign countries would represent a matter worthy of attention. Elon Musk's "cooperation" or "technical-commercial relations" with some foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, represent a matter worthy of attention, regardless of their legitimacy. The Kingdom Holding Company of Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal owns shares in the platform for a total value of 1.89 billion dollars, of which it will retain ownership. The prince's company is 16.9% controlled by the Riyadh sovereign fund, chaired by the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tutti-gli-scossoni-per-twitter-sotto-la-guida-di-musk/ on Sat, 12 Nov 2022 06:57:27 +0000.