Elon Musk says owning Twitter ''painful'' but needed to be done

Vartha Bharati | 12-04-2023 | 19:05:00 IST

Billionaire Elon Musk | PC: PTI

United States, Apr 12: Billionaire Elon Musk has told the BBC that running Twitter has been “quite painful” but that the social media company is now roughly breaking even after he acquired it late last year.

In an interview also streamed live late Tuesday on Twitter Spaces, Musk discussed his ownership of the online platform, including layoffs, misinformation and his work style.

“It's not been boring. It's quite a rollercoaster,” he told the UK broadcaster at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters.

It was a rare chance for a mainstream news outlet to interview Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX.

After buying Twitter for USD 44 billion last year, Musk's changes included eliminating the company's communications department.

Reporters who email the company to seek comment now receive an auto-reply with a poop emoji.

The interview was sometimes tense, with Musk challenging the reporter to back up assertions about rising levels of hate speech on the platform.

At other times, Musk laughed at his own jokes, mentioning more than once that he wasn't the CEO but his dog Floki was.

He also revealed that he sometimes sleeps on a couch at Twitter's San Francisco office.

Advertisers who had shunned the platform in the wake of Musk's tumultuous acquisition have mostly returned, the billionaire said, without providing details.

Musk predicted that Twitter could become “cash flow positive” in the current quarter “if current trends continue.” Because Twitter is a private company, information about its finances can't be verified.

After acquiring the platform, Musk carried out mass layoffs as part of cost-cutting efforts. He said Twitter's workforce has been slashed to about 1,500 employees from about 8,000 previously, describing it as something that had to be done.

“It's not fun at all,'' Musk said. “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 buying the company, he said it was something that “needed to be done.” “The pain level of Twitter has been extremely high. This hasn't been some sort of party,'' Musk said.

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As predicted, finally it rains in parts of IT hub, but not enough, say B'luru residents

03-05-2024 ¦ 03-05-2024 IST

Representational Image (PTI)

Bengaluru (PTI): Just as the weather agencies predicted on Thursday, humidity built up to 47 per cent in Bengaluru before the clouds let loose, drenching parts of the IT hub. Bengalureans took to 'X' to compare notes on ‘rain status’ in their locality.

Weather enthusiast Vijay, who tracks the day-to-day swings of Karnataka weather in his page, ‘Namma Karnataka Weather’ started a thread on rain, listing areas where it rained heavily, moderately, lightly as well as areas where rains drizzled for a mere few minutes.

Soon, people started posting rain videos from their localities on his thread.

Residents of Whitefield and Jayanagar were happy to report heavy and thundering rain. But most were complaining that the drizzle only made things worse, with Bengaluru getting more hot.

'X' user Aravind Balaji (@aravindn15) complained of "too much winds" near Banashankari and surroundings. From Malleswaram too, 'X' user Anil Raje Urs (@AnilRajeUrs3) said even as it started to rain in his area, strong winds chased the clouds away.

Another 'X' user, Jeevan Bk (@Bkjeevan) was disappointed that there was no rain in north west Bengaluru. So, were Thirumenhalli and Yelahanka residents and social media users who complained that the much awaited rain gave them a few droplets preview after a thundering entry and disappeared off the horizon.

Meanwhile, according to Meteorology Centre Bengaluru, India Meteorology Department (IMD), maximum temperature in Bengaluru ranged between 39.1 and 38.2 degree celsius.