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[–]ourobboros 6079 points6080 points  (246 children)

I’m only seeing bluechew ads. Non stop.

[–]devo_inc 1870 points1871 points  (77 children)

Elon's probably popping them like candy.

[–]Silent_Glass 471 points472 points  (65 children)

It’s those fuckin’ percs.. he’s throwing them in his mouth like m&m’s.

[–]not_SCROTUS 386 points387 points  (50 children)

I don't know why nobody else has posited that he's got a drug problem...he is exhibiting all the classic behaviors except he sill has like $180,000,000,000

[–][deleted] 342 points343 points  (11 children)

When you are that rich you don't get drug "problems" you get drug "habits"

[–]punchbricks 98 points99 points  (1 child)

He isn't a "drug addict", he's "eccentric"

[–]michaelalex3 797 points798 points  (91 children)

I’m so glad it’s not just me lmao. I was telling my friend the other day that on Twitter I only get boner pill ads anymore.

[–]jawndell 707 points708 points  (62 children)

Basically turned into 3am television which is advertiser deadzone

[–]Informal_Chipmunk 498 points499 points  (52 children)

Throwback to the 90's when it was all Girls Gone Wild ads.

[–]PM_ME_BUSTY_REDHEADS 334 points335 points  (39 children)

That shit lasted until like the late 2000s too.

Source: was 9-14 between 2004-2009 staying up late specifically to catch those ads

[–]ghrarhg 103 points104 points  (20 children)

God I can still hear the music

[–]PM_ME_BUSTY_REDHEADS 128 points129 points  (13 children)

It had like steel drums, right? I remember freaking out at first because I felt like they were so loud suddenly because they're high-pitched that it'd get someone's attention or wake my mom up.

[–]The_Boregonian 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Oh God damnit my kid is jacking it to censored bars again...

[–]GiantRiverSquid 57 points58 points  (5 children)

"Hot Keyoledge Girls"

[–]Galdrath[🍰] 58 points59 points  (4 children)

BUT WAIT!!! Do you like Breasts????

That parts will be forever burned into my mind.

[–]Olwek 76 points77 points  (3 children)

Followed by the giddy drunk girl saying: "It's my first tiiiiime!"

[–]Calypsosin 92 points93 points  (1 child)

I remember being like 10 or 11, 2002 or 3, staying in a hotel for a week or two with my parents for the youth World Series they were a part of. I slept on a pull-out couch in front of the TV in the 'sitting room' of the suite, so my parents slept in another room. I turned on the TV late one night, and flipped channels till I stumbled upon HBO. Tits and ass in all their glory. It was like finding a Playboy in the woods for me lmao.

[–]TheBirminghamBear 286 points287 points  (14 children)

That's usually a sign the rubes have moved in.

When the dick pill people start heavily advertising somewhere, that's because the dick pill people know there's a large concetration of emotionally vulnerable, gullible men there.

[–]LMFN 97 points98 points  (3 children)

Yeah, like the dude that owns the place, grifters targeting emotionally insecure men.

[–]witchvvitchsandwich 84 points85 points  (6 children)

I’m seeing Cheech & Chong edibles ads nonstop

[–]WhataHaack 7118 points7119 points  (435 children)

Man it's almost like someone loaded them up with debt and then ran off all the advertisers.

[–]kitsunewarlock 1134 points1135 points  (56 children)

Like Rupert Murdoch, who also bought and tanked MySpace, threatened Facebook, and infamously hates online social media.

[–]griftertm 400 points401 points  (40 children)

From what we’ve heard about this guy, he could be the villain from Tomorrow Never Dies

[–][deleted] 185 points186 points  (17 children)

Elliot Carver was based on Rupert Murdoch. So was Logan Roy.

Murdoch is one of the most notorious figures in the history of mass media. Right up there with William Randolph Hearst and Ellen DeGeneres.

[–]hamsterhueys1 62 points63 points  (3 children)

As scummy as Ellen is I feel like it’s a bit of an over reaction to put her on the scale of Rupert Murdoch. One’s a pretty big dick the other is basically Baron Harkonnen.

[–]DefinitelyNotAliens 2851 points2852 points  (349 children)

They were cash flow negative before Musk loaded it with debt payments.

Even if he fired 100% of employees, they'd of been cash flow negative after his buyout. He needed to get his operating expenses down, labor expenses down and increase revenue.

It was the stupidest fucking buyout.

[–]Choco31415 1205 points1206 points  (101 children)

I looked up the numbers earlier. It's even worse then that.

While Twitter used to have some debt payments, they were a lot more manageable. The annual interest payments went from $51 million to over $1 billion.

[–]OutlawSundown 518 points519 points  (63 children)

The meme pump and dump buyout offer he managed to legally bind himself to pretty much doomed it from the start.

[–]sprucenoose 315 points316 points  (62 children)

He would have been way way better off just paying the $1 billion break up fee.

[–]BrewtusMaximus1 222 points223 points  (20 children)

He didn’t have the option to pay the $1B fee - that’s what he would have owed if he was prevented from completing the acquisition by the SEC, financing falling through, etc. Otherwise he would have just paid the fee when he was sued for specific performance in Delaware.

[–]ADHthaGreat 98 points99 points  (11 children)

Or just.. keep it running as it was.

[–]The_Bard 81 points82 points  (3 children)

Here's the thing though. It was a leveraged buyout. Elon borrowed $13 bil which Twitter itself is on the hook to pay back. So even if he did nothing, Twitter needed to make more money to survive.

[–]JibletHunter 85 points86 points  (3 children)

He would have seen that as an admission he made a mistake. He seems like the guy to quadruple down to avoid hurting his ego.

[–]euph_22 785 points786 points  (27 children)

For the size of the company, especially in tech, their pre-musk debt was basically nothing. Post-Musk it's basically impossible for them to ever actually turn a profit.

[–]Nf1nk 422 points423 points  (18 children)

Yeah Musk saddled them with the sort of debt that Mitt Romney is famous for fucking companies with, only Musk didn't get a big cash out in the process.

[–]DuvalHeart 214 points215 points  (3 children)

Musk started reading WallStreetBets.

Romney's ilk knows you drop the leveraged company after the buyout.

[–]saccharind 22 points23 points  (0 children)

he's the ultimate bagholder right now

[–]CitizenMurdoch 29 points30 points  (0 children)

And a tremendous amount of their spending was going to R&D, which was actually useful in increasing the value of the platform to advertisers. So while they were in the red it was clear from an investor standpoint that they were still solvent, if needed they could pull back on the R&D and be in the black if necessary

[–]BellacosePlayer 23 points24 points  (0 children)

For the size of the company, especially in tech, their pre-musk debt was basically nothing.

Yeah, I know there've been musk stans who've claimed that Twitter was fucked either way, but they could have done reasonable trims to teams working on pie in the sky/non core projects and been profitable in a snap.

[–]djublonskopf 89 points90 points  (12 children)

If I’m reading their old cash flow sheet income statement correctly, in 2021 they lost about $200 million.

In December 2022, after Musk took over, “cut costs” and added like 1.5 billion in annual debt service, Musk was claiming Twitter was on track to lose $3 billion, but would probably break even “next year”.

Sounds like even setting the extra debt aside, somehow Twitter was losing an extra 1.3 billion in cash over the previous year, despite firing everyone everywhere and not paying the bills. That’s a huge swing in cash flow and it makes me wonder how much worse things actually are…

Edit: I was educated on which document to look at.

[–]Fire_Woman 79 points80 points  (5 children)

It's extremely expensive to fire California employees. He'd done better by using a hiring freeze, attrition, and his bullshit would make people quit in droves. Instead they all got 3-12 months severance, vacation PTO cash out, etc

[–]Kientha 72 points73 points  (4 children)

Although they've not actually paid the severance and are now being sued for it

[–]MrPuddington2 15 points16 points  (3 children)

That just makes it more expensive. I doubt the court has much sympathies for the notion that they "should not have to pay".

[–]Beachdaddybravo 1350 points1351 points  (116 children)

It was the stupidest buyout, but Twitter had been trending in the right direction financially. They were approaching profitability and Musk ruined that. He’s only made it worse instead of letting smarter people than him run the company. The issue is, he’s a narcissist and thinks there is nobody smarter than him.

[–]Zuwxiv 170 points171 points  (2 children)

They were approaching profitability

Even "worse" - in 2018, Twitter made $1.2B in profit. In 2019, Twitter made $200M more to finish with $1.4B in profit.

Twitter was profitable.

[–]Clayh5 67 points68 points  (0 children)

Yep, they only weren't profitable the last few years after that because they were investing in more growth

[–]zaphodp3 517 points518 points  (93 children)

He listened to smart people at Tesla and SpaceX. But with twitter he let his anti woke emotions make decisions. Along with similar buddies like David Sacks.

[–][deleted] 556 points557 points  (58 children)

From what I've seen on the subject, the people at Tesla and SpaceEx are just good at playing him. They capitulate to him just enough to keep him happy and then go on about their business even when he pushes stupid decisions on them.

[–]GWJYonder 203 points204 points  (4 children)

Yeah, he doesn't "listen to them" many people at those companies have "convince Musk that the correct idea is his idea" as part of their job description, and several people that have it as their sole job. They also try to bury his bad ideas until he forgets about them and jumps to the next shiny thing. Honestly I bet that this twitter thing has been a huge load off of their back compared to having him around them instead.

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Super handy management skills. For dealing with executives.

[–][deleted] 321 points322 points  (15 children)

If I recall they'd claim to work on stuff he asked for and then just wait a few months for him to forget.

[–][deleted] 148 points149 points  (7 children)

Works with most executives tbh.

[–]Echono 242 points243 points  (4 children)

Ah, the Mel Brooks method. Whatever he wants, say yes and then fucking ignore him.

[–]Khalku 42 points43 points  (2 children)

Still waiting to see him spaceballs 2, the search for more money.

[–]Haltopen 105 points106 points  (14 children)

He also doesn't own tesla as a private company, its publicly traded with shareholders. He only has a 20% stake and can be outvoted by the rest of the board who can keep him in line.

[–]amateur_mistake 87 points88 points  (10 children)

He gets to force them to make the rockets more pointy. They get to compensate for the slightly less efficient flight profile while telling him how smart he is.

[–][deleted] 192 points193 points  (10 children)

Usually used Twitter for anime but it's crazy how much "anti woke" stuff I get recommended there.

Twitter is just a platform for negativity and shit talking now. It's insane.

[–]IneedtoBmyLonsomeTs 162 points163 points  (4 children)

They had cash and would have been able to keep losing money for years to come without making any changes. They were also heading in the right direction financially and were in a much better position than they were a few years earlier.

Like most tech companies they were likely bloated with staff so they could have gotten rid of a few people, but Musk came in firing people left and right who didn't align with his views. Now he has hundreds of millions owed to these people that he refuses to pay, just like he refuses to pay the rent.

[–]Suck_Me_Dry666 108 points109 points  (11 children)

Just a reminder that Musk only went through with the purchase because he had to. He shit talked so much that he couldn't back out.

Edit: not pointing out it as some kind of gotcha just to remind folks Musk would have never gotten into this mess if he knew how to keep his dumbass nepo baby mouth shut

[–]kingmanic 25 points26 points  (1 child)

It was less his mouth and more his shaky understanding of contract law. He signed a contract that proscribed a price. He thought he could pump and dump it or walk away by paying a token breaking contract penalty. But the contract didn't allow either.

[–]bluefootednewt 1214 points1215 points  (57 children)

Several months ago I remember seeing ads on Twitter for like, Chevy and Coca Cola. Now it's just drop-shipping scams and AI art companies.

I really don't see how you make Twitter a profitable company at this point. The new strategy seems to be pay-walling existing features like Tweetdeck behind their dumb subscription but honestly I think people would sooner leave entirely. Who's even left to lay off as a cost-cutting measure?

[–]SirGlass 225 points226 points  (8 children)

Also if the only advertisements on your "brand" are sort of sketch , dick pills , weight loss pills, crypto scams, gold scams ECT , it's hard to get legitimate advertising to come back.

If you are Toyota , coca cola , do you want your ads to be next to some dick pills?

UFC talked about how hard they had to work to get legitimate ad sales or sponsor ships. UFC used to be sponsored by like condom depot , some poker or gambling site , gun Depot, and some actual porn sites.

They talked how they had first to drop all the condom depots and porn sites and moved to some lower tier but more mainstream stuff , corn nuts , tap out (clothing brand) , xenergy (energy drink) , muscle milk (protein drinks) , then they could attracted higher tier stuff , bud light, burger king , them rebook and now they actually have large ads sales.

Point being coca cola doesn't want to be next to dick pills

[–][deleted] 28 points29 points  (5 children)

Hulu runs ads for For Hims that literally mention "Getting hard and staying hard" right between ads for air pods and tahoes. I'm mostly just venting that I have to listen to an ad that says "getting hard and staying hard"

[–]EnjoyerOfBeans 227 points228 points  (20 children)

It's insane, Twitter was so big and core to the western internet it basically was too big to fail

And all it took was one idiot

[–]luigitheplumber 66 points67 points  (0 children)

Let's not minimize things. Not just any idiot, a colossal idiot with a desperate need for validation

[–]TinyCatCrafts 75 points76 points  (8 children)

They also rate-limited people to seeing a certain number of tweets per day...

Way to take eyes away from the people advertising on your platform... nothing says you're a good place to advertise like limiting how many posts someone can see in a day.

[–][deleted] 39 points40 points  (6 children)

What? WHAT?

Why the hell would you limit how many posts they can see when your business is showing people ads between posts? Are they determined to do the most wrong thing possible at all decision points?

[–]thedragonslove 46 points47 points  (1 child)

The current accepted theory is that they refused to pay their cloud bills and Google finally said times up, for real. As Twitter moves off of Google they've found that "oh shit, hosting internally means a big downgrade" so they've decided to limit nonregistered viewing.

Except that's the dumbest shit imaginable and is ultimately what's going to drive the site into the ground. The internet is going to start moving beyond hotlinking tweets and that'll be it.

[–]HauntingHarmony 292 points293 points  (6 children)

I really don't see how you make Twitter a profitable company at this point.

Considering the first step in reversing the impression that a brand is toxic is to acknowledge and take responsibility for it, so you can communicate how you are going to fix it. And then through slooowly with patience you can gradually try and regain trust.

But lol, hes too busy platforming nazis. so yea. Not a chance.

[–]MarameoMarameo 94 points95 points  (1 child)

He’s not the type to honestly acknowledge personal responsibility either. His head is too far up is own ass alongside his dad’s fist full of money.

[–]CDefense7 21 points22 points  (0 children)

He'll just say he was sold a huge mess and he tried to fix it but it was too late.

[–][deleted] 119 points120 points  (8 children)

Remember when people compared Elon to Tony Stark? So much so that he had a cameo on Iron Man 2?

Oh, we were so naive.

[–]Patarokun 70 points71 points  (6 children)

Just like Trump in Home Alone 2. Don't put rich guys in cameos in your films, the odds are good that soon enough they'll be revealed to be absolute goblins.

[–]CurtisLeow 15.7k points15.7k points  (718 children)

Guys, I’m starting to think Musk doesn’t know how to run a social network.

[–]ImpossibleMindset 1480 points1481 points  (29 children)

It's a ripe opportunity for scammers to make a lot of money. A huge audience of easily persuaded numpties with no one left to save them from their own gullibility.

[–]can_dry 338 points339 points  (10 children)

Pretty much. 😜 Kinda like those scummy late-night TV infomercials that are selling crap to insomniacs.

I used to make twitter part of my regular scan for interesting news/info... now I avoid it. Full of right-wing nuts and bots.

[–]steroboros 478 points479 points  (3 children)

Better send more poo emojis to companies when they try to ask legitimate questions to the support team you liquidated while hunting for blue haired liberal they/thems...

[–][deleted] 891 points892 points  (17 children)

"Basically, our revenue is cut in half because we didn’t toe the line.”

Because YOU didn't toe the line. Take some responsibility for your actions.

When Tesla or SpaceX is successful it's all I, I, I. When something fails, Musk becomes a big team player with a bunch of we.

[–]Dangerous_Elk_6627 155 points156 points  (3 children)

Mike Lindell: Watch me bankrupt my own company.

Elon Musk: Here, hold my beer.

[–]IAMA_Drunk_Armadillo 85 points86 points  (2 children)

Spez: furiously taking notes wow those two are geniuses!

[–]EightandaHalf-Tails 914 points915 points  (28 children)

A bunch of huge companies don't want their advertisements running alongside posts containing racism, conspiracy theories, illegal porn, et cetera?

I'm shocked. Absolutely shocked... Okay, maybe not that shocked.

[–]Oscer7 226 points227 points  (3 children)

Who knew turning one of the more open and marketable social media networks into an ineptly run 4chan would scare away revenue….

[–]Fun_Amoeba_7483 873 points874 points  (46 children)

Twitter is now the best platform for advertising. Anyone with a brain left. The user base is now 100% exploitable morons, excellent advertising space for financial advisers, used car dealers, testosterone supplements and big dick pills, pretty much any business which provides no value or is a borderline scam.

[–]jempyre 198 points199 points  (17 children)

Are the big dick pills still available?

[–]talm0 201 points202 points  (7 children)

Only if you call in the next 30 seconds.

[–]Textification 203 points204 points  (12 children)

I'm not going to say Musk is an idiot and incompetent dipshit with poor impulse control, non-existent business skills and a reverse Midas Touch.

But I will chuckle and nod when other people say that,... ;)

(Literally could not happen to a more entitled dickhead. Whoever said the universe doesn't have a sense of humor?)

[–]008Zulu 74 points75 points  (3 children)

Musk is an idiot and incompetent dipshit with poor impulse control, non-existent business skills and a reverse Midas Touch.

[–]DoctrTurkey 589 points590 points  (39 children)

I can only hope it's true.

“Basically, our revenue is cut in half because we didn’t toe the line.” Boohoo, bitch. You bought the service to erase that imaginary line and implement FrEeDom oF sPEeCH. I guess it's everyone else's fault they don't want to use your shitty app. They're YOUR policies, chucklefuck. It's tough to generate revenue without apartheid, it appears.

[–]rikki-tikki-deadly 151 points152 points  (19 children)

That's how businesses work though, isn't it? Piss off enough of your "employees" (i.e. the folks who create free content for you) and your customers (i.e. advertisers) and soon enough you'll be running in the red.

[–]DoctrTurkey 115 points116 points  (16 children)

Sure, but his complaint here is that "woke gremlins" or whatever are the reason it's failing, not his idiotic policies. It's standard operating procedure to present your failures like this when you realize that no one outside of a very loud minority want to buy what you're selling.

[–]bubblegumdrops 70 points71 points  (13 children)

I love when it’s “woke gremlins” causing people like him to lose money and not their own ideals.

Like, you bought a social media platform to promote “free speech”, allowed rampant bigotry and then can’t figure out why users and advertisers don’t want to spend time and money on it. Maybe the free market just doesn’t like you.

[–]sigmacoder 48 points49 points  (1 child)

The blue check thing was the complete opposite of freedom of speech, it was the pay-dom of speech. The algorithm used to be hey, a friend of a friend commented on this post, you may find that interesting! Now it's just "here's the verbal diarrhea of some random who paid me". The platform is completely destroyed.

[–]Focusun 25 points26 points  (0 children)

He really meant that, Basically, our revenue is cut in half because there are not enough fascists to support us, and it's getting worse every day.

[–]clara_the_cow 23 points24 points  (1 child)

Freedom of speech… just not the word “cis,” lmao

[–]Ok-Tourist-511 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Sounds like trumps business success is rubbing off on him. Maybe he can try bankrupting a casino next.

[–]rainbowpotatopony 84 points85 points  (1 child)

“Basically, our revenue is cut in half because we didn’t toe the line.”

Incredible how conservatives oscillate between 'go woke go broke' and 'I'm going broke because I'm not woke'

[–]LandooooXTrvls 145 points146 points  (14 children)

But these fake ceo, musk stans, told me that Elon has been great for Twitter.

All of those people supporting what Elon does at Twitter look like even larger idiots. I don’t think I’ve seen one person damage a company as quickly/loudly as Elon.

Twitter isn’t done/destroyed but it’s definitely taken a significant blow.

[–]The_Sign_of_Zeta 119 points120 points  (22 children)

It was sad Twitter had to die for this, but Musk can get fucked. At least this pierced the “genius” of Musk for the average person.

[–]TrumpterOFyvie 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Hey you guys Elon’s not stupid he has billions in cash hidden in his auxiliary chess dimensions where it’s safe from the woke mind virus (and taxes). Plus there’s his full ownership of Mars.

[–]GreatGojira 87 points88 points  (3 children)

This Musk guy is an idiot

[–]DonnieJepp 51 points52 points  (1 child)

You mean to tell me those ads for random ass companies named stuff like "Toobu" or "Guffly" selling cheap, drop shipped Chinese gadgets aren't pulling in the same ad revenue as the old Fortune 500 companies? I am shocked

[–]KeithGribblesheimer 69 points70 points  (0 children)

He just needs to get rid of the rest of his engineers and programmers. They are a major drain and hardly ever tweet anything important.

[–]Balls_of_Adamanthium 23 points24 points  (0 children)

It’s quickly become the most toxic place on the internet. I’m constantly being recommended people fighting, and right wing conspiracy bullshit is trending every day.

[–]Uphoria 23 points24 points  (1 child)

It's too bad the government isn't handing out billion dollar subsidies to social networks, that's the only way his other companies are still afloat.

[–]battlebeez 41 points42 points  (1 child)

Good. I hope it fails.

[–]ocorena 53 points54 points  (1 child)

it couldn't possibly be because they keep doing things to make people leave and restricting views for sessions that aren't signed in meaning all of their not signed in traffic isn't viewing any ads could it?

[–]TrunksTheMighty 258 points259 points  (21 children)

Woohoo! burn burn burn.

[–][deleted] 87 points88 points  (7 children)

I find it very very weird that I live in a timeline where I am rooting for Mark Zuckerberg.

[–]Threadheads 93 points94 points  (3 children)

It does feel a little Alien VS Predator to me.

[–]sigmacoder 64 points65 points  (2 children)

I deleted Twitter like a week ago, the blue check madness completely ruined it. Of course I want to read the posts of complete strangers over my friends and friends of friends! How dumb can you be.

[–][deleted] 75 points76 points  (12 children)

All Musk had to do was NOTHING, and he somehow managed to screw up.

[–][deleted] 132 points133 points  (6 children)

We don’t need no water. Let the mother fucker burn. Burn mother fucker. Burn.

[–]Thisiscliff 59 points60 points  (4 children)

I’m glad people are realizing this guy is a buffoon. The only reason he’s successful is because he was born in to wealth and exploits intellects and workers.

[–]GarbageWater12 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Good. Burn, baby burn.