Plunging U.S. revenue at X risks opening up a "massive hole" on its balance sheet that Musk needs to plug to stave off its financial collapse.

Musk’s repeated outbursts against advertisers have dried up the main source of revenue for the loss-making company formerly known as Twitter. A recent decision to sue them for heeding his own advice to not buy ads on the platform hasn’t helped. At some point, he will have to provide a fresh infusion of cash to salvage his $44 billion takeover.

  • irreticent@lemmy.world
    42·
    4 months ago

    “A recent decision to sue them for heeding his own advice to not buy ads on the platform hasn’t helped.”

    Gotta love it. He told advertisers to fuck off, they fucked off, now he’s even more mad at them.

  • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
    232·
    4 months ago

    Stop buying Teslas! Many other great or better EV choices out there.

    • TheBraveSirRobbin@lemmy.world
      68·
      4 months ago

      Are there? Last I’d heard other options either didn’t have infrastructure to charge vehicles on long trips and / or took too long to charge.

      I really haven’t looked into this so please just take this as a genuine question, and if you do have suggestions on other EVs I’d be curious what they are even though I’m not really in the market for one right now.

      • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
        161·
        4 months ago

        Last I’d heard other options either didn’t have infrastructure to charge vehicles on long trips

        Literally isn’t an issue going forward. Other EVs can use Tesla chargers.

        • sfbing@lemmy.world
          1·
          4 months ago

          “Going forward” is actually “not quite yet” for most non-Te sla manufacturers, unfortunately.

      • jaemo@sh.itjust.works
        10·
        4 months ago

        I’ve no complaints about the 2020 Ioniq. Road trips we’ve taken have all had more than adequate chargers, but contextually this is Vancouver Island/Lower Mainland/Gulf islands and they government definitely had a hard-on to put in as much as they could a few years ago, so finally ownership density is starting to catch up a tad now, but new chargers seem to appear all the time.

        Nothing beats just being able to charge at home though.

      • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
        8·
        4 months ago

        Rivians seem to be (a) popular, and (b) getting much better reviews than the Cybertruck. So if you’re truck hunting, that’s a good option.

        Didn’t the industry recently standardize on the Tesla connector, though? Wouldn’t that mean you could charge at any Tesla station?

        These aren’t Tesla specific.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
          3·
          4 months ago

          Didn’t the industry recently standardize on the Tesla connector

          Most of the industry announced that they will standardize on NACS. I believe they expect to actually do it over 2025-2026. That’s not far off but it’s not now.

          I just got back from a 1,200 mile road trip and the Tesla Superchargers were plentiful, fast, easy. The first was at a mall, where the car was done charging by the time we found the food court.

          I suppose I can’t really comment on other brands, except the one time I tried, I didn’t have the right adapter.

          Rivians seem like great technology and styling, however they’re on their first pair of high end vehicles. They’ve announced more reasonably priced models that could be built in higher quantity but they’re not selling them yet. I suppose that does compare with Tesla only selling “Foundation Series” trim level but the difference is those are intended to have a lower cost trim

        • raptore39@lemm.ee
          1·
          4 months ago

          We have been waiting for our free MachE adapter now for …checks email… 5 months. Apparently we’ll have it by September 2024.

        • TheBraveSirRobbin@lemmy.world
          0·
          4 months ago

          I knew they did a trial run of it somewhere in like Norway or Scandinavia or something but didn’t know it went anywhere. Good to know that there are better options

  • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.eeEnglish
    191·
    4 months ago

    Or maybe he’ll just have to sell Twitter.

    Or maybe Twitter’s debtors can place a lien and sell it right out from under him.

    Kinda curious about what if Twitter were nationalized…? Like, make it a service of the USPS or something? Force it to become accountable to its users?

    • Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world
      17·
      4 months ago

      The only issue with nationalizing it is that it will be probably even worse for moderation than under Elon. Private enterprises currently enjoy protection for moderation decisions. If it were nationalized any moderator action would run up against the First Amendment directly. Elon could ban Nazis (he doesn’t but he could). A government controlled entity cannot.

        • cheesepotatoes@lemmy.world
          1·
          4 months ago

          Arguably, it’s used as national communications infrastructure so, yeah, I would want taxes to be used for developing and maintaining it. Same as any other national infrastructure.

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
    9·
    4 months ago

    Anything short of Elon Musk distancing himself as far from Tesla as possible is breaking his fidicuary duty.

    • auzy@lemmy.world
      8·
      4 months ago

      The problem with Tesla really is Elon.

      If he sells his majority stake, I suspect it would be a lot better.

      The biggest reason against buying them is him. They also make more than cars (their powerwalls seem alright).

      If X fails though, I suspect all those bigots will flood over to here (Facebook and X seem to be distracting them for now).

      Let them have their nazi prison. Just make it not profitable

      • A7thStone@lemmy.world
        61·
        4 months ago

        Personally I’d be wary of putting a giant brick of lithium in my house, especially from a company with the questionable quality control of Tesla.

        • auzy@lemmy.world
          3·
          4 months ago

          I agree partially, but in practice, the LFP batteries should be fine (I would never trust the PowerWall 2).

          Unfortunately, been looking at other alternatives, and there don’t seem to be many seamless home batteries that cut in instantly in the event of a power outage (like an online UPS) either.

          The reality is though, I expect Tesla to lose this market anyway (they only just introduced the PowerWall 3 in AU… Even cheap chinese manufacturers have been using LFP for a while)

      • tacosplease@lemmy.world
        2·
        4 months ago

        Having worked with Tesla I can tell you not all their problems would leave with Elon, but it would certainly be a great start.

      • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
        31·
        4 months ago

        The people who aren’t buying Teslas because they hate Musk aren’t gonna change their mind because he sold some stock. The company is tainted forever.

        • auzy@lemmy.world
          3·
          4 months ago

          They won’t a tiny amount… But controlling share they might.

          I can’t afford a Tesla. However, my biggest concern is that musk will half arse firmware or sabotage the company somehow.

          If he doesn’t have controlling share, that’s a win and I suspect quality control will likely improve too

        • LowleeKun@feddit.orgDeutsch
          1·
          4 months ago

          I mean i am too poor and don’t need a car but i could see myself buying a tesla once elon really is gone and the other two factors change for me.

        • ...m...@ttrpg.network
          1·
          4 months ago

          The company is tainted forever.

          …he didn’t found the company, engineer the cars, systems, nor infrastructure: there’s a lot of salvageable value in tesla if he goes away…

          • auzy@lemmy.world
            0·
            4 months ago

            The only real engineering he’s done is likely the boring company (who the duck wants to drive in a claustrophobic one lane tunnel) and the submarine thing the cave divers said wouldn’t work (so he called them pedos)

            • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
              2·
              4 months ago

              He didn’t engineer anything because he doesn’t know how. At most he drew some kindergarten levels drawings on a white board.

              • auzy@lemmy.world
                31·
                4 months ago

                The reality is… He is an engineer. Not all engineers have good ideas.

                The difference is, he won’t accept criticism

                I do software development and have had a few crap ideas (I once thought I could make a optimised OpenGL library using Matricies). The difference between normal people and him, is that when I got told it was a crap idea, I deleted the project. When he gets a crap idea, he attacks the person giving feedback, so there is NO incentive to provide anything but good feedback

                When you’re surrounded by yes men you’ll only increasingly become over confident in yourself

                • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
                  11·
                  4 months ago

                  No, Elon isn’t an engineer. He doesn’t have an engineering degree from an ABET certified school, no FE or PE license, nor does he understand basic engineering or design principles.

                  You can lick his boots and lie all you want, but Elon is a rich bitch trust fund baby who takes credit for the ideas of others and you defend him. It’s honestly sad, coming from a mechanical engineer, that you as someone who works in software development, would call him an engineer.

        • SSJMarx@lemm.eeEnglish
          11·
          4 months ago

          I’m not so sure. The overlap between “people who would like a high end EV” and “people who won’t buy something associated with Musk” has to be pretty big. I imagine if Musk’s roll was reduced the Board would have to put some work in to rebuild their brand, though - maybe by really focusing hard on quality control and longer-than-standard warranties for a few years, the way Royal Enfield did to shake off their own reputation for shoddy workmanship and cheap parts. Then they could let “the Musk years” fade into history and retake their reputation as the Premuim American EV.

      • InternetUser2012@lemmy.today
        21·
        4 months ago

        If he sells it all, I’ll buy a Tesla the next day. Until then, dinosaur bones for me. Unless an economical and very powerful aftermarket swap parts become readily available.

  • rsuri@lemmy.world
    6·
    4 months ago

    He’ll probably just get tesla shareholders to gift him the money. They’ve shown they’ll sign off on pretty much anything he asks for.

    • Laser@feddit.org
      5·
      4 months ago

      Musk: How about a multiple billion dollar pay package?
      Sane people: You’ve already had it.
      Musk: I’ve had one, yes. What about a second multiple billion dollar pay package?

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        03·
        4 months ago

        The thing y’all keep forgetting is that it’s mostly in stock. He has HUGE incentive to keep Tesla going successfully, because of the immediate impact of the stock price on his wealth

        • Laser@feddit.org
          3·
          4 months ago

          Even if I didn’t know that, it would be clear after 10 seconds of thinking that a company that made about $46bn in the last four years can’t just pay out now than that in actual money, they don’t have the cash reserves.

          For him, he can borrow against the stocks, so it’s about as good as money, maybe not 100%, but still a sizeable amount.

          I think it’s dumb to agree to goals and compensation / rewards after the goals have already been met. I can’t go to my employer and retroactively demand more pay for previously agreed work, even if it turned out better than he or the customer expected.

          I think Tesla stock holders were mislead and / or stupid, there’s no dividend so the only way to profit is to sell at one point, and Tesla’s position in the market is only getting weaker by the year. Outside of their car business, they have nothing of interest, though some people will never tire to emphasized that Tesla is a tech company - just what that concrete tech is that other companies or customers will want is still somewhat of a mystery. Same if it justifies current market evaluation.

          I wouldn’t bet against Tesla stocks - I know the market can stay irrational longer than I can stay solvent.

          Given Musk’s recent behavior alienating his potential core customers, he is a liability rather than an asset. The cybertruck damaged the brand, the semi which was delayed by 3 years does not fit the needs ICE trucks do, rental and other companies are phasing out Teslas because of their fast depreciation- but robotaxis will fix it, right?

          How anyone has a positive outlook on their performance with him as the CEO is almost beyond me, but if you assume there’s a personality cult, it makes sense.

    • Tyfud@lemmy.world
      1·
      4 months ago

      That’s because he installed his family and sycophants into the board at Tesla. They were literally put there to vote for whatever he wants. The shareholders approved the board appointees, and now they’re completely fucked unless someone calls for a full replacement of the board of executives at Tesla.

      It’s his company, for better (unlikely) or worse (very likely).

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    6·
    4 months ago

    That’s because it is almost exclusively tied up in his various corporate holdings that include everything from rocket builder SpaceX and brain chip company Neuralink to his latest startup, xAI.

    None of these investments are easily fungible. Only Tesla is a publicly traded company. So the easiest solution at his fingertips is to liquidate a portion of his remaining 12% stake.

    Let it fucking burn.