I can't imagine Elon spending over 40bn to buy up a company that he then desperately needs to enact measures in order to recoup the lost money in ways that just dig him a bigger hole.

I think he's really that dumb. He tried to devalue the company prior to purchasing by saying bots are rampant etc. The case against him said he needed to buy the company at the original price.

Until this point, his reputation had him as some kind of infallible tech messiah, so in order to not lose face, he bought it at the original price, knowing his plan backfired and he had to borrow billions in order to complete the sale.

Every decision he made after just attracted ridicule and caused the platform to fall further into a heaping mess. Once his reputation was revealed to be a petulant child, he just doubled down and destroyed it.

Elon, it turns out, just isn't as clever as he (or many of his backers/fans) thought...

[–] Neve8028@lemm.ee 18 points 2 years ago (1 children)

People always forget he was literally sued into buying twitter. He never wanted to buy it, he was just playing stupid games like he always does.

[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Yeah, IMO he was trying to do a pump and dump in the same style of his crypto pump and dumps, but he managed to make some legally binding statements while doing the pump.

[–] shapesandstuff@feddit.de 9 points 2 years ago

Until this point, his reputation had him as some kind of infallible tech messiah

I mean.. only on terms of his PR team.

[–] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That requires there having been a plan to begin with. He desperately tried to get out of buying Twitter. Now he’s flailing but trying to act like he knows what he’s doing.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 years ago

My guess is that it wasn’t Elon’s plan. The Saudis might want to take Twitter out of the picture to prevent another Arab spring from happening, and they found a way to do it through Elon.

[–] Aidinthel@reddthat.com 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I doubt it, if only because publicly failing like this must hurt his ego pretty badly.

[–] Endorkend@kbin.social 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

He, like Trump, is the useful idiot.

Remember, he didn't exactly buy Twitter cash in hand.

The money he used came from all over, only about half of it from selling stock he owned, the rest is banks and foreign interests (a very large one being the Saudi).

His goal was probably genuinely to turn it into a success with his own political views ruling the platform, but to do that, they should've stuck with his usual shtick of him being the PR face of the company while actually competent people do the work and make the decisions. Whatever political shite he spouts on the platform then doesn't matter.

But the other interests wanted Twitter either in the hands of someone they can influence, preferably someone with questionable morals and a similar totalitarian political view, or have it destroyed. For them, either way is perfectly fine.

They got what they wanted and the useful idiot is left to look like a fool.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 years ago

My guess is, Saudis are trying to prevent another Arab spring from happening. By fragmenting the social media landscape, it will be a bit harder for the masses to organize demonstrations.

[–] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago

Of course it was.