Elon & Twitter

[bkp_duke]

Your point? I said he wanted the people to resign in the 1000s on day 1. The cutting of 75% I see as rather desperate to help make this thing financially not a disaster. It is always better for people to resign then get laid off. No unemployment, no severance, no warn act, etc. etc.

MY POINT is you are being dishonest in that post. You are painting something that was well-known was going to happen as a "desperate" last-minute event.

To be blunt - that's a lie.

 

[bkp_duke]

That last part is just semantics. It is 60 days of pay that really matters. In the building or out really doesnt matter,

No one lets these people stick around after firing them. If you have to pay them 2 weeks, or 60 days, you do that and you escort them out of the building. They won't be of any value to productivity after that point, and in a few cases they have known to be malicious.

 

[Big Dog]

Agreed. I am not sure how he planned to add value to Twitter. I thought there was some magic he had up his sleeve.

Either go full on subscription or don't. Having a mix is just the worst of both worlds. I could see a model where viewing accounts are free and a few tiers for tweeting, verified, superuser privileges. Subscription would also avoid most of the bot accounts if they needed to pay to tweet.

Full-on subscription would eliminate Twitter. IMO, the Blue check charge makes sense (dunno if $8 is the right number, that is a pricing issue). Twitter has a gazillion accounts but only an extremely small portion of those are real, active users. (think politicians, journalists, influencers, business). Essentially, Twitter has been free advertising for them, so let them pay a fee to be active daily tweeters to get their message out. (And that is what the whining -- looking at you, AOC and Stephen King -- is about: they want Twitter to remain their free mouthpiece....)

 

[EV-Methow]

I'm more worried about the future of Tesla than the future of Twitter (which probably has no future). Taking the glass-half-full perspective this could be great for Tesla because The Musk is going to have to sell many shares for many years just to cover the financing interest and revenue loss. Good motivation to keep Tesla a strong, solid, customer-pleasing, profitable company while he has his endless hissy fit in the Twitterverse. But it is sad to see the man spiraling down like this.

 

[EVNow]

But in Shanghai right now, the vast majority of people are against zero COVID so Elon would be regarded as a hero.

And you know that, how ?

Not saying it is correct or otherwise - but I think we should refrain from claiming facts that we can't possibly know about.

I definitely, 1000%, do NOT want Elon to challenge authorities in China on Zero Covid. Tesla needs to respect local laws.

ps : He shouldn't have challenged Alameda county officials either .... the correct way to do that would be to challenge in court.

 

[Bouba]

I cant think that this behavior will also have an effect on Tesla and SpaceX employees and recruits. Over the past few years spent a lot of time with Computer Science students and Computer Engineers at Universities that my kids have gone/go to. Lots want to be part of something that makes a better world. Elon is turning them off to Tesla and SpaceX. Yes I know some will say that well it will turn on the conservative students. Sorry just not as many. You look at any of the big tech companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, they are dominated by more liberal people.

Even liberals have to pay off their student loans

 

[ElectricIAC]

Even liberals have to pay off their student loans

DB will pay them off for them, so I’ve heard.

 

[thx1139]

Even liberals have to pay off their student loans

They will find other choices.

 

[bkp_duke]

And you know that, how ?

Not saying it is correct or otherwise - but I think we should refrain from claiming facts that we can't possibly know about.

I definitely, 1000%, do NOT want Elon to challenge authorities in China on Zero Covid. Tesla needs to respect local laws.

ps : He shouldn't have challenged Alameda county officials either .... the correct way to do that would be to challenge in court.

I don't like how he did it, but courts are too slow. Tesla was bleeding tens of millions of dollars a day every day that Fremont was offline.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was a "passable" one. We also have no reports of deaths from COVID at Tesla Fremont (the MSM would have been all of this if there was). Elon's big beef at the time, IIRC, was that OTHER business in the county were allowed to open their doors, but Tesla was singled out not to. This is eventually why the county didn't sue him and Tesla, they were on tenuous legal footing because of perceived bias.

 

[ElectricIAC]

They will find other choices.

Sir, this is a Wendy’s

 

[thx1139]

MY POINT is you are being dishonest in that post. You are painting something that was well-known was going to happen as a "desperate" last-minute event.

To be blunt - that's a lie.

Who said I believe it was last minute? I think Elon regretted the deal a long time ago and realized it will be a financial disaster a long time ago. I dont believe at all that he got there last Friday and said holy crap this is going to cost me a fortune. He knew that months ago.

 

[thx1139]

Sir, this is a Wendy’s

No they have degrees that are in very high demand. They can choose many other companies that either A keep political opinions far quieter or they share with the recruits.

 

[ElectricIAC]

No they have degrees that are in very high demand. They can choose many other companies that either A keep political opinions far quieter or they share with the recruits.

Twitter isn’t the only big tech outfit cleaning house.

 

[STS-134]

And you know that, how ?

Not saying it is correct or otherwise - but I think we should refrain from claiming facts that we can't possibly know about.

I know people who live there. Actual Chinese nationals, not expats.

I definitely, 1000%, do NOT want Elon to challenge authorities in China on Zero Covid. Tesla needs to respect local laws.

ps : He shouldn't have challenged Alameda county officials either .... the correct way to do that would be to challenge in court.

Yep.

I don't like how he did it, but courts are too slow. Tesla was bleeding tens of millions of dollars a day every day that Fremont was offline.

Fremont was not "offline", it was capacity limited in accordance with county rules. There were only a certain number of employees who were allowed to be in the building at any given time. But it was still allowed to operate.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was a "passable" one. We also have no reports of deaths from COVID at Tesla Fremont (the MSM would have been all of this if there was).

If we had a contagious disease that could only spread at automobile factories, maybe that's believable. But of the ~1500 infections that occurred at Tesla, did they track all of the transmission chains downstream?

Elon's big beef at the time, IIRC, was that OTHER business in the county were allowed to open their doors, but Tesla was singled out not to. This is eventually why the county didn't sue him and Tesla, they were on tenuous legal footing because of perceived bias.

Such as? Grocery stores are different from a factory because customers are going in and out, but they're not exposed to the same people for hours, day in and day out.

 

[bkp_duke]

Who said I believe it was last minute? I think Elon regretted the deal a long time ago and realized it will be a financial disaster a long time ago. I dont believe at all that he got there last Friday and said holy crap this is going to cost me a fortune. He knew that months ago.

This is what you said: "The cutting of staff abruptly does appear to be rather desperate.".

That's not true. The cuts were going to happen regardless. Twitter's cost structure, even when public, was not sustainable as they were losing money.

Sure, it's better for employees to resign (you don't have to pay any UE benefits then), but that was not what Elon had laid out. It was happening, one way or another.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

It's the same 'crap' as before

Kind of different since the Chief Twit is now posting that same crap in his new position.

And we should expect him to continue doing so, of course.

If an advertiser knew (and they know!) that Elon would in future Tweet about several baseless and disgusting conspiracy theories, would you blame them for cutting ties for now until there’s a clear commitment from Elon (for whatever that is worth…at a minimum ) to not do so? His Tweets now are an direct indicator of the company’s values.

Seems like it makes sense. It’s just transactional. Few are opposed to advertising on Twitter on principle of course. Everyone wants to make money. Can’t make money by getting rid of all your customers.

 

[ohmman]

Either go full on subscription or don't. Having a mix is just the worst of both worlds.

Netflix is headed in this general direction with their lower-tier subscription pricing that includes ads. Not a huge fan. I'm a NFLX shareholder since June, so I'm in the money enough to watch and see how this plays out (and hopefully get past the long term capital gains threshold).

 

[thx1139]

Twitter isn’t the only big tech outfit cleaning house.

And they people laid off arent outside shaking tin cups.

I dont know 1 software engineer that doesnt get recruiters contacting them constantly.

 

[bkp_duke]

Fremont was not "offline", it was capacity limited in accordance with county rules. There were only a certain number of employees who were allowed to be in the building at any given time. But it was still allowed to operate.

Wrong, it was a FULL stop on production:

Tesla files complaint in federal court claiming 'no rational basis' for factory shutdown

Tesla alleged in a lawsuit that California's Alameda County, where the automaker has a factory, went against state rules and "created a legal quagmire."

www.cnbc.com

And yes, at the time, positive cases were quarantined by the Health Dept and contact tracing performed.

 

[thx1139]

This is what you said: "The cutting of staff abruptly does appear to be rather desperate.".

That's not true. The cuts were going to happen regardless. Twitter's cost structure, even when public, was not sustainable as they were losing money.

Sure, it's better for employees to resign (you don't have to pay any UE benefits then), but that was not what Elon had laid out. It was happening, one way or another.

Oh come on. Just because it was planned long ago doesnt mean it doesnt "APPEAR" to be rather desperate. Desperate to get the costs down as soon as F'ing possible.