Elon Musk Says Owning Twitter “Quite Painful”, Will Sell It If…
Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October last year.
Billionaire Elon Musk has said that running Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion in October last year, has been “quite painful” and “a rollercoaster”. Mr Musk also said that he would sell the company if he finds the right person. The businessman made the comments in a BBC interview that was streamed live on Twitter Spaces on Wednesday morning. The interview comes days after the British broadcaster objected to its Twitter account being labelled as a “government-funded media”. The BBC contacted Twitter and insisted that it has always been independent.
“It’s not been boring. It’s been quite a rollercoaster,” Mr Musk said when asked about his time at Twitter so far. The Tesla CEO the situation has been “quite stressful over the last several months” but added that buying the company was the right thing to do.
“The workload means that I sometimes sleep in the office,” said Mr Musk, adding that he has a spot on a couch in a library “that no one goes to”.
The speculation around Mr Musk’s intention to sell the microblogging platform started gaining prominence after documents filed by the company in a California court against a lawsuit showed Twitter Inc. has ceased to be an independent company after merging with a newly-formed firm called X Corp.
The document said that Twitter “no longer exists”.
The announcement is in accordance with the direction Mr Musk wants the company to take. After buying Twitter last year, Mr Musk had said that the decision is ultimately “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”.
X.com was initially an online bank that Mr Musk co-founded in 1999. It went on to merge with software company Confinity Inc. a year later and changed its name to PayPal.
It is not clear what the change means for Twitter, which has seen a sweeping overhaul since Mr Musk took over. However, an independent software engineer told New York Times that these changes “have largely been cosmetic”.
Also Read | Tweaking Name, Changing Logo: How Musk Changed Twitter Experience
Most recently, Mr Musk covered the “W” in the microblogging platform’s name outside the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, sending many in shock. Before that, the billionaire briefly replaced the iconic blue bird logo with doge meme on the Web version of Twitter.
He also reinstated several accounts that were previously subject to lifetime bans, including that of former US President Donald Trump, which sparked a huge debate among users.
Shortly after becoming the “Chief Twit”, Mr Musk announced a plan that led to a huge uproar – to charge $8 for joining the exclusive club of those who have the coveted blue tick. Many celebrities criticised the plan, but Mr Musk justified it by citing the cost to operate the company.
Apart from this, he also allotted colours for the categories – gold for companies, grey for governments and a blue check for individuals including celebrities.
