TheQuartering [6/16/2022]
According to NPR:
Elon Musk addressed Twitter employees on Thursday for the first time since striking a deal to buy the social network for $44 billion.
The billionaire Tesla CEO touched on a wide range of subjects, from his ideas for improving Twitter’s finances to the platform’s rules about speech to musings about life, the universe and the existence of aliens, according to a person who listened.
Musk dialed in remotely to the meeting, which was livestreamed internally. Twitter’s chief marketing officer, Leslie Berland, posed a selection of questions submitted by staff.
Asked about his vision for the company, Musk said he wanted a billion people a day to use Twitter. That’s ambitious. Just 229 million people use Twitter daily right now.
He deflected a question about whether he planned to become the CEO, saying he doesn’t care about titles, but plans to give a lot of input about the direction of the platform. (Musk is already CEO of two companies: Tesla and SpaceX.)
He floated ideas for broadening Twitter’s business beyond its current dependence on advertising, suggesting it could charge people to get “verified” with those blue check marks – a way of confirming their identities.
What was not directly addressed, either by Musk or in the questions Berland asked, is whether the billionaire entrepreneur remains committed to buying Twitter.
In recent weeks Musk has cast doubt over the deal, tweeting that it was “on hold” while he looked into the prevalence of fake accounts and automated bots on the platform. He’s also suggested he might seek to lower the price he’s agreed to pay. (Global markets have fallen sharply since Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, and some observers say Musk may feel like he’s overpaying.)
Last week he threatened to walk away entirely, saying Twitter wasn’t handing over information about the issue. Since then, Twitter has agreed to give Musk access to its so-called firehose, a real-time stream of more than 500 million tweets posted every day.
At Thursday’s meeting, Musk reiterated that bots are a big concern for him – but didn’t give any hint that he might be changing his mind about the purchase.
Since Musk struck his deal to buy Twitter in April, his comments about how he would tackle the company’s hardest challenges have rattled some employees.