Musk’s repeated outbursts against advertisers have dried up the main source of revenue for the loss-making company formerly known as Twitter. A recent decision to sue them for heeding his own advice to not buy ads on the platform hasn’t helped. At some point, he will have to provide a fresh infusion of cash to salvage his $44 billion takeover.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 months ago

    That’s because it is almost exclusively tied up in his various corporate holdings that include everything from rocket builder SpaceX and brain chip company Neuralink to his latest startup, xAI.

    None of these investments are easily fungible. Only Tesla is a publicly traded company. So the easiest solution at his fingertips is to liquidate a portion of his remaining 12% stake.

    Let it fucking burn.

  • SmokumJoe@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I don’t understand how you can sue a company that doesn’t want to advertise on your platform

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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      3 months ago

      From what I understand, they’re trying to (mis)use a law to the effect that companies cant all get together and boycott a competitor in order to try to drive it out of the market. If my understanding is correct then, for example, if say Ford and GM and such happened to also run electric taxi businesses, and those taxi businesses bought cars off the open market where in theory they should buy whatever they think gives them what they need at the best price, even if from another car maker, then it wouldnt be legal for them to all go and say “we make electric cars, and Tesla does too, so lets not buy anything from Tesla, regardless of how cheap or good their products are, so they lose business” (Assuming that the Teslas in question would in fact be perfectly suitable for said taxi companies needs that is). They’re trying to sue an advertising industry group, claiming that they’ve done this kind of thing. Except the members of the group in question arent really competitors to Twitter, and in any case, the quality of advertising is thought to diminish if the ads are next to objectionable and bigoted content, since its thought to hurt the advertised company’s image, so if my understanding is correct, it should be simple enough for them to argue “We’re not colluding to hurt your company, your product just isnt up to our standards so we arent buying it”

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      You can sue anyone for anything. It’s just a matter of how long you fight it before it gets thrown out.

  • Talaraine@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    Why do you think he strongarmed Teslas shareholders into that big pay day? He’s known this was coming, y’all. Tesla’s just paying for his misadventure.

    • Spraynard Kruger@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I don’t know much about trading stock, but I do know SpaceX is not a publicly traded company. That means his buyers for those shares are super limited, so each potential buyer would likely be super wealthy and would have more say over the company than any one individual in the horde of public buyers that would buy up the Tesla stock. Plus, him needing to divest from Tesla might actually drive Tesla stock up a little (eventually), since he won’t have as much control of the company as he did before. It seems he would still be the largest shareholder after the selloff, but this would close the gap between him and the next largest shareholder. He owns over 3x more Tesla stock than the next largest shareholder.

      www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/052616/top-4-tesla-shareholders-tsla.asp#:~:text=Tesla is the world’s most,%2C Vanguard%2C and State Street

    • CaptSneeze@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’m noticing, but failing to see why that’s significant. Is something interesting going on with spaceX?

      • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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        3 months ago

        He’s using Tesla, a publicly traded company, as a piggy bank and transfering wealth from it to the privately owned Twitter and SpaceX. This is stealing from Tesla shareholders but because they’re fucking idiots they’re just letting it happen instead of dumping their stock and suing.

  • John Richard@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I have to give Musk credit. At least he help narrow my car buying decision to know at least one brand that I’ll never buy.

      • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        I was talking with a solar company about a solar install with battery storage last year, and they only offered the Powerwall as an option. I literally laughed at them and said there was no way I was tying an enormously expensive piece of home infrastructure to Tesla, because they couldn’t guarantee it’d keep working if Tesla decided to shift direction.

        • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          I have rejected every one of the endless stream of door to door solar panel sellers primarily because not ONE would leave me substantial documentation of any kind to decide if I wanted to talk to them - the only thing they wanted was a full “consultation.” My view is that if you can’t give me something that illustrates genearlly what you are about to pitch to me, then you probably just want the chance to apply some shady sales tactics.

          Were these door to door guys? Did you go with them? Do you have any opinions on the door to door guys? 🙂

          • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            No, this was part of a group buy program in my area, which was designed to reduce prices. I ended up turning them down because it was still more expensive than it seemed like it should be, and they were going with an older single inverter system instead of a newer and more efficient micro inverter system.

            I’ve heard the door to door guys tend to massively upcharge. I haven’t had any come through here, though, so I don’t have any direct experience.

            • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Thanks! (Sorry for the late reply.) Any particular resources you’d recommend for research? Everything I find googling is either immediately clearly an advertisement, or becomes clearly an advertisement as I continue reading.

              • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                Honestly I don’t have anything specific I’d recommend. When I was looking into it, I just did a ton of reading on forums along with articles about how to get everything set up. I also looked at the prices I was offered compared to the prices I’d be able to pay elsewhere, and got quotes from several different companies.

                In the end there were a bunch of reasons I didn’t go with solar. I really love it as an idea, and I really want to do it, but it’s enormously expensive. There are lease options, but they’re also expensive and many of them seemed predatory. My utility ended their purchasing program for solar-generated power, and I’m still required to pay a large monthly fee to be connected to the grid, so I couldn’t plan to offset my costs there either. The tax credits are helpful, but you still need to pay up front.

                • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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                  2 months ago

                  Thanks! I appreciate this analysis - and predatory is exactly how I felt about the people who came to my door, even if they were polite and friendly, and even though I couldn’t seem to dig out that word.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      3 months ago

      There are many reasons to avoid Tesla, regardless of Musk. The complete lack of independent repair was my deal breaker, but you’ll find your own. Their competition is looking pretty good these days, too.

      • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Well someone already said that. I do agree, maybe he’s just fucking stupid. Even I or any other non CEO could have done as good a job since the guy doesn’t actually have to code anything. He literally just needs to show up and steer the company towards business opportunities, which he didn’t do. But he could have planned it too since he actually wanted revenge on the company from the beginning.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Can we please, please stop with this nonsense.

      1. Why did he fight a lawsuit to get out buying it? How many levels of 4D chess are we on in this demented conspiracy theory where he wants to buy something, so he sends a bunch of very expensive lawyers to court for months to try to get him out of buying it?

      2. Why did he rename it to X? X is his baby. That’s not hyperbole, the X brand is so important to him that the literally named one of his children X. He got kicked out of paypal for trying to make X happen. The man is absolutely obsessed with X. It is his white whale. You don’t bequeath that legacy to something you’re trying to kill.

      Stop giving Musk credit by pretending there’s some kind of genius plan behind everything he does. He’s the richest man on earth, he does not need you to suck his dick for him. He can pay people for that.

      He doesn’t have a secret evil plan. He’s just really, really stupid. He’s a textbook example of how people who start with wealth and unearned confidence will frequently become even wealthier because we have a fucked up clown show of an economic system. That’s all there is to it.

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    2 4 1 deal, how to trash 2 companies at once. Good job space karen!