Elon Musk snaps up $3bn Twitter stake

Whoa--disappearing into the Musk Void. Which kind of makes sense, then, why he reportedly bought thousands of graphics processors to accelerate Twitter's AI development. The article says he is "feuding" with OpenAI.

https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-...-gpus-for-a-twitter-ai-project-214535382.html

 

Bizarrely, Twitter has banned BleepingComputer's app for story-sharing. Has to be some kind of glitch or something. Hopefully, it'll be restored "soon."

https://twitter.com/BleepinComputer/status/1647012007734923264

 

oooo, more on the potential lawsuit. There is a LOT to be made via advertising on Twitter, that's for sure.

https://arstechnica.com/information...microsoft-drops-twitter-from-its-ad-platform/

For one thing, I did not know El;on "helped start" OpenAI--Ars says he "co-chaired" OpenAI but then resigned in 2018 citing conflict of interest w/Tesla's self-driving AI projects. OK so it's getting very entwined and convoluted here. Stay tuned, I guess.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ing-up-in-flames-why-its-elon-musk-reputation


"Enter Errol Musk: the billionaire’s father. Last week, Musk Sr told the Sun US that there absolutely was an emerald mine, albeit an “under the table” one that was the result of an informal arrangement with an Italian man back in the era when “Zambia was a free for all”. Which, um, doesn’t sound dodgy at all. According to Errol, all the Musk kids knew about the emeralds and they helped fund Elon’s studies in the US. Now, just so you can assess this information properly, I should point out that Errol and Elon have a fraught relationship; in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, during which he reportedly cried, Elon described his dad as a “terrible human being”. One reason for the rift might be the fact that Musk Sr has had two kids with his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout. Errol is 42 years older than Bezuidenhout and raised her since she was four."

"While I can’t speak to the veracity of Zambian emerald mines, I can say that Elon hasn’t been having the best time of it lately. For years the billionaire convinced an embarrassing number of people that he was a visionary who was going to save the world. Increasingly, however, he is being revealed as an incompetent narcissist who is doing his best to set his brand on fire. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it’s the rapid unscheduled disassembly of Elon Musk’s reputation."

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

 

"A new Chief Twit has been found to throw under the Cybertruck", so says The Register.

Her name is Linda Yaccarino. She was NBCUniversal's head of advertising for more than 10 years and an "industry advocate for finding better ways to measure the effectiveness of advertising," the WSJ says. "As head of NBCU's advertising sales, she was key in the launch of the company's ad-supported Peacock streaming service."
A very successful and respected executive.

She starts at Twitter in 6 weeks. Her role will be difficult due to the toxic environment (toxic to advertisers) that Musk has allowed to develop under his leadership. Considering her tough negotiating style, her contract with Musk (as CEO) will no doubt have a robust parachute clause in it ... and considering her acumen, she will not allow herself to be setup as the proverbial 'sCapEgOat' if Twitter can not be revived. Twitter's epitaph already has a name etched on it.

 

Update May 19: Musk's lawyer sent a letter to Microsoft today demanding an audit at Microsoft (re: all the 'Twitter data' that Microsoft has 'stolen' since Musk deemed the Twitter API no longer free). Microsoft has confirmed that they received the letter. Musk's lawyer accuses Microsoft of data mining and profiting ($billions) without permission.
... An audit usually precedes legal action.

This is possibly a rerun of the mouse that roared but with a different ending.

 

Well, if Musk can't make money through selling subs, there's always litigation.

 

Hmm, this is an acct. I happen to follow and just noticed this new "thing" here. It's not part of the blue check/verified gimmick but it seems to be something a content creator can choose to implement now. Well...OK, things like this tend to sink or swim. I personally am not going to pay 3 USD/month for stuff that other creators are duplicating with some frequency anyway.

Has anyone else noticed this new feature and if so, do you know any more info about it?

PS: this creator had already set up a donations page as it seems her child has special needs and there were some modifications that needed to be done to the home. OK, whatever.

Spoiler

 

Oh wow. It's really happening. Well, I mean: what did they expect. Twitter to get a free ride b/c it's Twitter? This is its Boulder CO office, it seems, not the main one.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...victed-from-colorado-office-over-unpaid-rent/

 

"Elon Musk says Twitter's cash flow still negative as ad revenue drops 50%

July 15 (Reuters) - Twitter's cash flow remains negative because of a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load, Elon Musk said on Saturday, falling short of his expectation in March that Twitter could reach cash flow positive by June..."

https://www.reuters.com/technology/...w-still-negative-ad-revenue-drops-2023-07-15/

 

I'm disliking Twitter more and more everyday since EM acquired Twitter...

 

Agree. It's lousiest it has ever been. I only ever really use it to keep up with extreme world events - natural disasters or otherwise, but it's turned to pure garbage, not even worth the effort to bother with it any longer. It's total junk anymore and complete waste of time.

 

Looks like Elon is going to be a mite poorer. How will this impact Twitter, though, if at all? So far, I've personally not encountered anything negative or anything causing me to (cof) switch to Meta's stuff. Maybe the line is blurring betw. the two anyway.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...m-after-being-sued-for-overpaying-themselves/

 

Twitter has removed 'Larry' the Bird logo and adopted ‘X’ as its official logo. Elon Musk announced the change July 22 and it is already live on the website. Musk might not stop at just replacing the logo. He said the company will eventually “bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” In April, the Musk-owned social network changed its legal name from Twitter Inc. to X Corp. In a reply to a user, Musk also hinted that people should refer to Tweets as “x’s.”

The Xodus !

 

Imagine what this will to to a google search. Before you could search for something on twitter. Now if you search for something on x it probably won't find much.

 

Just as well. Participation and viewership is in the dumps, content is spotty at best, and mostly lazy kiddish memes vandalize all over it. Just as well rot on the bandwidth that carries it. Musk is a spoiled weirdo with way too much money for his own good to function as a responsible director of anything but chaotic chatter.

No surprise the Twitter is defunct now

 

Agreed!

 

Decreasing revenues via advertising for various companies and coupled with attempts to come up with superapps and involving more revenue streams.

 

"Trademark attorney Josh Gerben, said he counted nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations that already cover the letter X in a wide range of industries. There's a 100% chance that Musk is going to get sued over this by somebody."

https://www.reuters.com/technology/...e-own-trademarks-new-twitter-name-2023-07-25/

Some add'l info I dug up that is not in the Reuters article...

1. X is currently trademarked by Meta Instagram as it relates to online social networking services, for gaming and application development.
2. Reg No. 2693757 US Patent & Trademark Office Service 2003: 'Mark X' belongs to Microsoft for providing online chat rooms for transmission of messages among computer users plus use in computer videos, games, & bulletins.
3. The symbol that is currently displayed on Musk's social networking site.
   -it's the main font for Unicode U+1D54F MATHEMATICAL DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL X

 

Just one more small indication that things are not going so well. And it brings it home that Twitter as a brand is no more. My feed is still good, not so polluted with unasked-for junk. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/24/23140317/twitter-sign-sf-hq-removal-demolition-police

 

Well, Elon, he always does controversial things but history has proved that humanity needs such fool visionaries. Unfortunately in most cases they are not appreciated until much later.

The rebranding of Twitter to X makes sense to me because X intersects all of Elon's business, more in this article. Plus, rebranding is one of the successful marketing things and Twitter as a whole has stunk for a long time.

Footnote ... I don't work for Elon but I like the likes of him, Jobs, Gates, Branson etc.

 

x-mania will tear "twitter" / "x" down.
60 per cent loss of ad income, porn channels rising, thus regular and sophisticated channels leaving, shares in free fall. musk has lost 29 billions of dollars within a year (for european: 29 Milliarden)