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.

    • auzy@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year 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

      • tacosplease@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 year 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
        0·
        1 year 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.

        • ...m...@ttrpg.network
          0·
          1 year 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·
            1 year 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
              0·
              1 year 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
                0·
                1 year 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
                  0·
                  1 year 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.

        • auzy@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 year 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
          0·
          1 year 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.

      • A7thStone@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 year 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
          0·
          1 year 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)

      • InternetUser2012@lemmy.today
        0·
        1 year 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.

    • Spraynard Kruger@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know much about trading stock, but I do know SpaceX is not a publicly traded company. That means his buyers for those shares are super limited, so each potential buyer would likely be super wealthy and would have more say over the company than any one individual in the horde of public buyers that would buy up the Tesla stock. Plus, him needing to divest from Tesla might actually drive Tesla stock up a little, since he won’t have as much control of the company as he did before. It seems he would still be the largest shareholder after the selloff, but this would close the gap between him and the next largest shareholder. He owns over 3x more Tesla stock than the next largest shareholder.

      www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/052616/top-4-tesla-shareholders-tsla.asp#:~:text=Tesla is the world’s most,%2C Vanguard%2C and State Street

    • CaptSneeze@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’m noticing, but failing to see why that’s significant. Is something interesting going on with spaceX?

      • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
        0·
        1 year ago

        He’s using Tesla, a publicly traded company, as a piggy bank and transfering wealth from it to the privately owned Twitter and SpaceX. This is stealing from Tesla shareholders but because they’re fucking idiots they’re just letting it happen instead of dumping their stock and suing.

  • S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    0·
    1 year ago

    Oh no think of all the journalists that will have to work instead of quoting twitter for 3 scrolls straight!

  • John Richard@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 year ago

    I have to give Musk credit. At least he help narrow my car buying decision to know at least one brand that I’ll never buy.

      • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
        0·
        1 year ago

        I was talking with a solar company about a solar install with battery storage last year, and they only offered the Powerwall as an option. I literally laughed at them and said there was no way I was tying an enormously expensive piece of home infrastructure to Tesla, because they couldn’t guarantee it’d keep working if Tesla decided to shift direction.

        • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          I have rejected every one of the endless stream of door to door solar panel sellers primarily because not ONE would leave me substantial documentation of any kind to decide if I wanted to talk to them - the only thing they wanted was a full “consultation.” My view is that if you can’t give me something that illustrates genearlly what you are about to pitch to me, then you probably just want the chance to apply some shady sales tactics.

          Were these door to door guys? Did you go with them? Do you have any opinions on the door to door guys? 🙂

          • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
            0·
            1 year ago

            No, this was part of a group buy program in my area, which was designed to reduce prices. I ended up turning them down because it was still more expensive than it seemed like it should be, and they were going with an older single inverter system instead of a newer and more efficient micro inverter system.

            I’ve heard the door to door guys tend to massively upcharge. I haven’t had any come through here, though, so I don’t have any direct experience.

            • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
              0·
              1 year ago

              Thanks! (Sorry for the late reply.) Any particular resources you’d recommend for research? Everything I find googling is either immediately clearly an advertisement, or becomes clearly an advertisement as I continue reading.

              • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
                0·
                1 year ago

                Honestly I don’t have anything specific I’d recommend. When I was looking into it, I just did a ton of reading on forums along with articles about how to get everything set up. I also looked at the prices I was offered compared to the prices I’d be able to pay elsewhere, and got quotes from several different companies.

                In the end there were a bunch of reasons I didn’t go with solar. I really love it as an idea, and I really want to do it, but it’s enormously expensive. There are lease options, but they’re also expensive and many of them seemed predatory. My utility ended their purchasing program for solar-generated power, and I’m still required to pay a large monthly fee to be connected to the grid, so I couldn’t plan to offset my costs there either. The tax credits are helpful, but you still need to pay up front.

                • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
                  0·
                  1 year ago

                  Thanks! I appreciate this analysis - and predatory is exactly how I felt about the people who came to my door, even if they were polite and friendly, and even though I couldn’t seem to dig out that word.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      There are many reasons to avoid Tesla, regardless of Musk. The complete lack of independent repair was my deal breaker, but you’ll find your own. Their competition is looking pretty good these days, too.