Musk says proudly owning Twitter ‘painful’ however wanted to be completed

LONDON (AP) — Billionaire Elon Musk has informed the BBC that working Twitter has been “quite painful” however that the social media firm is now roughly breaking even after he acquired it late final yr.

In an interview additionally streamed reside late Tuesday on Twitter Spaces, Musk mentioned his possession of the web platform, together with layoffs, misinformation and his work model.

“It’s not been boring. It’s quite a rollercoaster,” he informed the U.Ok. broadcaster at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.

It was a uncommon probability for a mainstream information outlet to interview Musk, who additionally owns Tesla and SpaceX. After shopping for Twitter for $44 billion final yr, Musk’s adjustments included eliminating the corporate’s communiciations division.

Reporters who electronic mail the corporate to hunt remark now obtain an auto-reply with a poop emoji.

The interview was generally tense, with Musk difficult the reporter to again up assertions about rising ranges of hate speech on the platform. At different occasions, Musk laughed at his personal jokes, mentioning greater than as soon as that he wasn’t the CEO however his canine Floki was.

He additionally revealed that he generally sleeps on a sofa at Twitter’s San Francisco workplace.

Advertisers who had shunned the platform within the wake of Musk’s tumultuous acquisition have largely returned, the billionaire mentioned, with out offering particulars.

Musk predicted that Twitter might turn into “cash flow positive” within the present quarter “if current trends continue.” Because Twitter is a personal firm, details about its funds can’t be verified.

After buying the platform, Musk carried out mass layoffs as a part of cost-cutting efforts. He mentioned Twitter’s workforce has been slashed to about 1,500 staff from about 8,000 beforehand, describing it as one thing that needed to be completed.

“It’s not fun at all,” Musk mentioned. “The company’s going to go bankrupt if we don’t cut costs immediately. This is not a caring-uncaring situation. It’s like if the whole ship sinks, then nobody’s got a job.”

Asked if he regretted shopping for the corporate, he mentioned it was one thing that “needed to be done.”