Elon Musk is in charge of Twitter. Wall Street sees an “Everest-like” challenge ahead.
Elon Musk, who changed his Twitter handle to “Chief Tweet,” proclaimed “the bird is free” late Thursday. dominated The question now is whether the billionaire Tesla CEO can grow his business while fulfilling his vow to turn it into a bastion of free speech.
Balancing these goals will result in “an uphill battle like Everest,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told CBS Moneywatch, telling Musk that “we can really turn this around.” sex is less than 50%.”
Musk has made various seemingly contradictory statements about his vision for Twitter, but has shared few concrete plans. But some of his challenges are clear, according to analysts.
First, Musk paid a hefty premium to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Second, Twitter has a hard time attracting advertisers. go into recession next year.
“He bought this asset at the worst possible time,” Ives said. “We are in the midst of a massive social media slowdown.”
He added, “The easy part is buying Twitter. The hard part is fixing it.”
At the same time, the New York Stock Exchange began the process of delisting Twitter on Friday. This means that many of Musk’s moves are not transparent to investors and observers. And without a stock price or a response from big institutional investors, Musk might work up the courage to mark the company, said Eric Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan. Posted in conversation.
Here are three issues Musk faces as he steers Twitter.
get advertisers
Musk, who has criticized Twitter for its reliance on advertisers, issued a statement Thursday that appears to be intended to allay their fears. He promised marketers that he wants the service to be “the most respected advertising platform in the world.”
But Twitter has blamed the “macro environment” amid the uncertainty surrounding the Musk acquisition, which has seen advertising slow sharply. Ad sales in the second quarter he was up 2%, a significant drop from his 23% ad revenue in the first quarter.
A lot depends on whether Musk can not only keep current advertisers, but convince new ones to sign up for the platform. About 90% of the service’s revenue comes from advertising.
open the floodgates for free speech
Musk says he wants to promote free speech by loosening up how Twitter moderates content. Wall Street analysts say it risks unleashing harmful online flows that alienate users and advertisers.
Musk said on Thursday that he didn’t want Twitter to become “everybody’s hell”. However, he had previously hinted that he might restore the accounts of former Twitter users who were banned for violating the company’s standards and policies. Still shadow ban, ghost ban, search ban and today again twitter deleted 1200 followers as usual.”
Musk on Friday said Twitter would form what he called a “content moderation council with broad and diverse perspectives,” and those whose accounts were banned would be reinstated until the group had a chance to meet. He added that it would not be returned.
For now, it is unclear whether former President Donald Trump will return to the military. To give permission If he buys Twitter.Trump is permanent ban 3 days later from a social media site January 6 Attack on the Houses of Parliament Because there is a “risk of inciting further violence.”
Musk may think Trump’s return to Twitter has helped him engage more with other users, Ives said. But doing so would be a “political tightrope walk”, he added.
For his part, Trump said Friday Position Of Truth Social, a conservative-leaning social network backed by his media company, he said, “I’m very happy that Twitter has fallen into the hands of sanity. A radical left-wing fanatic who truly hates our country. No longer run by fanatics or fanatics Twitter has to work hard to get rid of all of the bots and fake accounts. will be
Mass layoffs coming?
Twitter has gone private, but Mr. Musk is overpaying for a loss-making business and will have to streamline, Mr. Ives said. Musk says Twitter has more employees than it needs, he recently told The Washington Post report It could cut up to 75% of its workforce.
Ives believes that headcount reductions could range from 30% to 50% of the company’s headcount. Musk can cut costs, but “he can’t pave the way for growth,” he added.
After taking control of Twitter, Musk fired CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and chief legal counsel Vijaya Gadde, according to the Associated Press. Seagal confirmed his resignation in a series of tweets on Friday.
Musk will likely hire a veteran social media exec to run Twitter, but he will remain deeply involved in the company, Ives predicted. “With Mask, don’t count him,” he said. “He was able to defy the skeptics again and again.”
–Reported by the Associated Press.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-twitter-wall-street-sees-a-challenge-ahead/ Elon Musk is in charge of Twitter. Wall Street sees an “Everest-like” challenge ahead.