B
illionaire businessman Elon Musk recently acquired Twitter for $44 billion from its previous owners. The reason why they sold the influential company is clear, as the offer was higher than Twitter’s market cap of $39.4 million. If you know Elon Musk (at least from the internet), you will agree that he always does his thing his way. A man who is said to be launching a 5-star hotel in space soon — proof of the dogged personality of Elon Musk.
“Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in the coming months,” Musk tweeted. “We will keep what works & change what doesn’t,” says Elon Musk.
After taking over the social media company, Elon Musk publicly clashed with some of Twitter’s employees, and immediately sacked one of the employees via his tweet. One of the main reasons Elon Musk’s Twitter could be in chaos is his method to forcefully change the operations of the company.
Why Elon Musk’s Twitter might be causing a rave
Elon Musk might be struggling because he allowed his indecisiveness to show out on the public stage right from the onset. From constantly tweeting about new policies, which he usually reversed, to polling users on features like verification. While this approach could mean he respects the users enough to choose features, his conceited tweets might beg to differ.
A professor of law at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, Anat Alon-Beck, pointed out that Elon Musk is just trying to get a clue about what to do. He doesn’t have a plan to follow, and there must be a responsible adult in the room to guide Elon. With this statement from Professor Anat Alon-Beck, are we to believe Elon Musk doesn’t have a plan to run the helm of the influential company and is just trying to get a clue of what to do? Although Elon Musk has been a successful businessman, the social media world might be a bit too slippery for the Tesla CEO.
Why Elon Musk fired Eric Frohnhoefer
Things got rough between Elon Musk and ex-twitter software engineer Eric Frohnhoefer on Twitter, and Elon fired him via a tweet “he’s fired.“ Eric confirmed the sack, after losing access to Twitter’s internal systems. Frohnhoefer’s job termination came after he tweeted evidence Elon was wrong about his previous claims that Twitter is running “super slow” in some regions.
Eric, in an interview with CNN, said he was notified about his job termination when his close friend sent him Elon Musk’s tweet and even claimed no one reached out to him from Twitter to notify him of the job termination. Eric also added he was willing to work for Elon Musk, though he later described working for Elon as a “total shits show” and the current condition of affairs as pure “chaos.”
In response to Eric Frohnhoefer’s job termination, Elon Musk tweeted, “I would like to apologize for sacking these geniuses, their immense talent and service will no doubt be implored elsewhere.”
The possible outcome of the chaos ravaging Elon Musk’s Twitter
As Elon Musk continues to spike chaos in his newly acquired company, experts have identified some of the issues Twitter might face soon if nothing is done about its current condition. These experts suggest both Twitter and Elon Musk will likely face litigation. It could be noted that while Elon’s renegade management style at Twitter is not far from how he has run his other companies in the past, those actions have not been without consequence.
Musk has faced countless lawsuits from the previous companies he has led, including the space company SpaceX, car firm Tesla, and brain-machine interface technology developer Neuralink. As Twitter’s chaos continues, a lawsuit against Elon Musk has gone to court, in which those who invested in Tesla accused him of overpaying himself while not investing sufficient time in the company. In the past, investors at Tesla have also sued Elon over accusations of workplace harassment, damaging the brand, and securities fraud over his tweet about taking Tesla his private company in 2018.
Elon Musk’s Twitter already faces countless lawsuits from some of the thousands of employees Musk sacked recently. They claim Elon didn’t give them proper notice of termination or insufficient job termination payoff. Workers with disabilities have also been forced to resign due to the hardcore demands of the job.
Professor Alon-Beck stated Elon Musk will face lawsuit after lawsuit. She added that there are several issues he will face and continue to face regarding this acquisition, and a lot of cause for legal action.
Twitter might go bankrupt
Twitter might be heading for bankruptcy, as advertisers flee from the platform to more comfortable ones. Several big fishes in the advertisement world are already moving away from Twitter. General Mills, General Motors, and other companies have suspended taking messages from the platform indefinitely because of the instability of the company. Civil rights groups are already calling for more companies to join over his recent hate speech and misinformation. Twitter has seen an increase in hate speech as Musk continues to foster his “free speech” campaign. He claims Twitter users have misunderstood his goal and would apply measures to curb hate speech on the platform.
“What Elon fails to understand is that Twitter, unlike some of his other companies, is 97% dependent on advertising funding, and this makes his ‘I don’t care’ behavior more harmful to the company bottom line,” says John P Wihbey, a professor of Media Innovation and Technology at Northeastern University.
It is not safe to create confusion and alienate large sections of the user base. Tesla or SpaceX is more dependent on hardware sales. Professor Wihbey stated that “in this type of business, advertisers can easily walk away, so it is not okay to create confusion and alienate large sections of the user base.”
Elon Musk’s quest to make the company profitable immediately after purchasing it for $44bn is causing him a lot. Musk announced the company is losing not less than $4 a day and communicated to his staff during their meeting on Thursday that bankruptcy is not out of the question.
“While his bad management approach might serve him at other companies, a company like Twitter, which depends on advertising funds to strive, could fastly backfire,” said Raj Shah, lead analyst for telecom, media, and technology at digital transformation consultancy Publicis sapient.
“With Elon’s experience in managing companies with the behavior of ‘I have the big picture in mind and we will figure out how to get there along the way,’ this attitude won’t translate well to an important information and advertising platform where millions of people depend on the availability, stability, and reliability of technology and content,” Raj Shah concluded.
Just like Elon Musk and his sporadic Twitter management, there are times when our quest to make a quick profit could cause us more harm than good. Every company requires a different management approach, and Elon Musk seems not to get it yet.
Featured image: The Verge
For the latest in fashion, lifestyle and culture, follow us on Instagram @StyleRave_
This is a Style Rave original content exclusively created for our readers. If reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used by any other publishing house or blogs, such use should provide a direct link to this source article. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
