Elon Musk says Twitter at ‘roughly break-even’ after ‘quite painful’ ownership – business live | Business

Many advertisers paused work with Twitter over concerns about Musk’s approach to content and moderation, after his takeover last autumn.

But Musk insists that advertising has picked up again, telling the BBC:

“I think almost all of them [who left] have either come back or said they were going to come back. There’s very few exceptions.

“Depending on how things go, if current trends continue, we could be… cash flow positive this quarter if things keep going well.”

Elon Musk also revealed that he sometimes sleeps in the Twitter office, using a couch in a library “that no one goes to”.

And in a curious moment in the interview, he insisted that his dog Floki, a Shiba Inu, was the CEO of the social media company.

Musk said:

I’m not the CEO of Twitter. My dog is the CEO of Twitter.

Last December, Twitter users voted that Musk should stand down, and in February Musk joked that Floki was now running things.

Musk also said the legacy verified blue ticks on Twitter will be removed by next week (as part of his push to persuade users to pay for Twitter Blue).

He criticised media groups who said they won’t pay for blue ticks, arguing:

“It’s a small amount of money, so I don’t know what their problem is.

Several celebrities and media organisations have said they will not pay for a subscription, amid concerns that fake accounts or parody accounts will find it easier to impersonate them.

During the interview, Musk defended the sacking of around three quarters of Twitter’s staff after his takeover last year.

He said Twitter would have gone bankrupt if he hadn’t cut costs immediately, claiming the company had ‘four months to live’.

This is not a caring/uncaring situation. If the whole ship sinks then nobody’s got a job.

Twitter has about 1,500 employees now, Musk said, a sharp decline from “just under 8,000 staff members” before the takeover.

Musk also said Twitter will update the BBC’s “government-funded media” tag after the broadcaster objected to the label.

The BBC contacted Twitter last week after the designation was attached to the main @BBC account.

In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Mr Musk said he has the “utmost respect” for the organisation, adding:

“We want (the tag) as truthful and accurate as possible – we’re adjusting the label to (the BBC being) publicly funded – we’ll try to be accurate.”

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Elon Musk has revealed Twitter is “roughly breaking even”, saying advertisers are returning after many quit following his takeover of the social media site.

In an interview with the BBC, on Twitter Spaces, Musk also said the criticism he’s faced recently has been “rough”.

Asked if he had any regrets after buying Twitter for $44bn last year, Musk said the pain level of Twitter has been “extremely high”, and that owning the company hasn’t been “some sort of party”.

Musk said:

So, it’s been really quite a stressful situation, for the last several months. Not an easy one.

He said that “of course” many mistakes had been made along the way, but argued that “all’s well that ends well”.

As Musk put it:

I feel like we’re headed to a good place. We’re roughly break-even, I think we’re trending towards being cashflow positive very soon, literally in a matter of months.

The advertisers are returning.

Musk, who cut almost half of Twitter’s workforce last autumn, said cutting the workforce had not been easy.

He said the company has made improvements to its recommended tweets, following feedback after Twitter made its recommendation algorithm open source.

Overall I think the trend is very good.

Musk also opened up about why, in February, he had tweeted that he wouldn’t wish the pain of running Twitter on anyone.

Musk said he had been “under constant attack”, which hurt as he doesn’t have “a stone-cold heart”.

If you’re under constant criticism and attack, and that gets fed to you non-stop, including through Twitter, it’s rough.

But it’s important to get negative feedback, he added. Musk says he doesn’t turn off replies, and doesn’t block anyone on Twitter either.

So I get a lot of negative feedback.

Also coming up today

Investors are awaiting the latest US inflation data today, which may show that the cost of living squeeze eased last month.

The US consumer prices index is expected to have risen by 5.2% in the year to March, down from 6% in February. A sharp fall could encourage the US Federal Reserve to end its interest rate increases, which would be welcomed by traders.

The IMF will release its Fiscal Monitor, assessing public finances at countries around the world, today, after yesterday predicting the UK’s economy will shrink this year.

The agenda

• Noon: US weekly mortgage applications
• 1pm BST: IMF publishes its Fiscal Monitor
• 1.30pm BST: US inflation report released
• 2pm BST: Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey speaks on ‘The shifting risk landscape’ at the Institute of International Finance in Washington DC
• 3pm BST: Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision
• 7pm BST: Federal Reserve’s FOMC releases minutes of its last meeting