After becoming CEO of Twitter in October 2022, Elon Musk has committed a string of questionable actions, resulting in the company facing potential bankruptcy. 

Musk bought the company privately for $44 billion and saddled it with $13 billion in debt. This debt is very problematic because last year, Twitter’s cash flow—–how they pay for things like debt payments—–was only $6.3 billion.

One of Twitter’s main sources of revenue is advertising, and since around 50 of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers have left the site, this year’s cash flow could be even lower. Many advertisers seem to have been driven away by Musk’s new content moderation policies, such as paid verifications, which has caused a dramatic rise of scammers and impersonators on the platform.

Musk also introduced account verification for eight dollars a month, leading to mass chaos, including fake accounts for various brands popping up. 

The Washington Post reported on a verified fake account for the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. The fake account tweeted, “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.” 

Pepsi tweeted, “Coke is better,” Nintendo posted a picture of Mario flipping the bird, and Nestle tweeted, “We steal your water and sell it back to you lol.” 

In addition, Musk fired half of the 7,500 Twitter employees with only a day’s notice in November 2022 to further decrease costs. Employees were sent an email asking them to agree to specific work conditions, or they’d be let go with three months severance pay. This left around 2,700 people left to cover a monumental amount of tasks. 

Musk told the remaining employees to expect “long hours at high intensity” and that it would be “extremely hardcore.” Musk also laid off two employees who maintained good relationships with advertisers. 

It appears he regrets kicking out so many vital employees because after being let go, many received invitations to return to the company. Apparently, several of the people let go were essential in creating Musk’s new vision for Twitter: Twitter 2.0. He sent out another email to the remaining staff, saying that under his ownership, Twitter would become much more engineering-driven. And then Musk proceeded to fire one of those crucial engineers for publicly questioning his leadership. 

It seems that Musk is running in circles, trying to pick Twitter off the ground but driving it further into disrepair. 

Before he knows it, Musk will be the only one left standing in an empty Twitter headquarters because he has started selling their furniture! 
There’s no point in leaving abandoned seats lying around, so on January 17, Heritage Global Partners is hosting an auction for hundreds of items. Dry-erase boards, tables, chairs, couches, corporate kitchen appliances such as ovens, coffee machines, refrigerators, fryers, and grills, plus an “@” sculpture planter, are all on the list of things being sold. So if you’re feeling you need a new decorative piece to add to your living room, check out the Twitter auction!