I wonder how Elon Musk is feeling about his $44 billion investment in Twitter right now. He may still be the richest man in the world, but $44 billion is $44 billion, as they say.
Because it's by no means certain that Twitter will even survive Musk's first few weeks in control. Having fired almost half of its staffers, Musk gave a lesson in corporate governance when he offered remaining staff a grim ultimatum: accept "Twitter 2.0", which "will mean working long hours at high intensity", where "only exceptional performance will contribute a passing grade", or take a 3-month severance package.
Well, attractive though that offer sounds (not!), it seems like hundreds of Twitter staffers have choose to take the package. The company is deemed to be "in disarray", and has announced that office buildings will be shut down and employee access badges disabled at least until Monday. Employees have been asked to "refrain from" talking about what is happening at the company (this from a "free speech absolutist"!), although it seems clear that very few of them actually know. Many advertisers have understandably put their accounts with Twitter on hold until they can see where the company is going under Musk.
The hashtag #RIPTwitter has been trending. Even Musk himself posted a doctored photo of Twitter's funeral, with his usual bizarre and highly suspect sense of humour. Not the most suspicious of starts. Permit me a little smug schadenfreude.
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