Elon Musk, chief executive officer (CEO) of Twitter and Tesla, has said that the past three months have been “extremely tough” as he “had to save Twitter from bankruptcy” while also fulfilling his duties in Tesla and SpaceX. Musk, taking to his official Twitter handle, said that the microblogging site continues to have challenges, according to a report by news agency AP.
According to the report, Musk tweeted, “Last 3 months were extremely tough, as had to save Twitter from bankruptcy, while fulfilling essential Tesla and SpaceX duties. Wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone. Twitter still has challenges, but is now trending to breakeven if we keep at it. Public support is much appreciated!”. He tweeted in response to The Wall Street Journal’s news article.
He also lamented the company’s “massive drop in revenue” just one week after closing the $44-billion deal to buy Twitter in October, which he attributed to “activist groups pressuring advertisers,” Fox Business reported. Since then, he has made a number of changes on Twitter, as per the news report.
Musk has reduced about half of Twitter’s staff, introduced a revamped microblogging site Blue subscription service and even auctioned off memorabilia from the company’s San Francisco headquarters, Fox Business reported. He defended the Twitter layoffs in November, stressing that the company was losing $4 million a day.
Recently, Twitter announced that it will start charging a fee to access its API, which developers use to create third-party services, as per the news report. Earlier on January 13, Musk revealed some of the changes that were set to be introduced in the microblogging platform from next week onwards. He wrote, “Bookmark button moving to tweet details page, fixing image length crop & other minor bug fixes next week.
Meanwhile, a US jury on Friday decided that the Tesla CEO and his company were not liable for misleading investors when Musk tweeted in 2018 “funding secured” to take Tesla private, as reported by the news agency Reuters. In August 2018, Musk tweeted, “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”