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Category: Elon Musk

Everyone (including Elon) wants a better deal

by Om Malik
This post is by Om Malik from On my Om

Inside Twitter, employees told me today, there’s a mood of exhaustion. Rank-and-file staffers have little to no faith in the board, or in CEO Parag Agrawal, whose moves yesterday to fire the company’s highly respected heads of product and revenue look even more erratic.

Casey Newton reporting

The wrong guys got fired. Instead of an overmatched CEO, Parag Agarwal, Kayvon Beykpour (product lead), and Bruce Falck (revenue lead) got shown the door because CEO wanted to take the company in a new direction. I would have shown the big honcho the door. But again, the board is quite feckless. (Read: Musk or not, Twitter CEO has to go.)

Except for the CEO, no one in the company believes that firing these two executives was a good decision. Kayvon, who co-founded Periscope, was well regarded in the company and helped wrangle a good product strategy for the company. The palace intrigue is coming at a time when Elon Musk is once again turning Twitter into his pet pinata. What many see as waffling or wobbling is just a technique to get a better deal for Twitter.

The market meltdown has made Twitter less valuable.

In a research note about Twitter, Hinderberg Research which is short Twitter stock pointed out that Nasdaq is down about “~17.6%, implying a Twitter price of ~$31.40 per share without a deal.”

Musk knows that, and he also knows that there isn’t another buyer. So, this is a good chance for him to (Read more...)

Bully Pulpit

by Om Malik
This post is by Om Malik from On my Om

Photo via Unsplash

This is the third in my ongoing series of posts about Elon Musk’s quest to buy Twitter. In the first of the series, I pointed out that Twitter’s CEO might be woefully out of his depth, and the board has failed to do its job. Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey agreed with me. I later pointed out that there is no (motivated) buyer (just yet) other than Musk. In this third piece, I point out that Elon’s intentions are self-serving. And why not. What’s the point of having billions if you can’t protect your self-interests — Om 

It might seem too cynical, but to understand every piece of news, I use a simple framework: behind every action is an agenda. And that has what has allowed me to make sense of Elon Musk’s decision to buy Twitter. Elon has offered $54.20 a share or about $44 billion, and Twitter will become a privately owned company.

To understand Elon’s grand plan, let’s turn back the clock to 1909.

According to a story published in the New York Times, then-president Theodore Roosevelt said: “I suppose my critics will call that preaching, but I have got such a bully pulpit!” He had coined the term that would become commonplace over the next century. 

For President Roosevelt, that bully pulpit was his office (and position) to speak about and on issues and change the course of the conversation. He spoke to the American people directly, and many presidents have (Read more...)

So who else can buy Twitter?

by Om Malik
This post is by Om Malik from On my Om

Since everyone has decided that Elon Musk’s $54-a-share offer for Twitter is just a troll, the question remains who else can buy the company? Is there a suitor who can digest Twitter and deal with all its baggage? Or is the company destined to be a middling underachiever?

Twitter had adopted the poison pill plan that would make it difficult for Musk to achieve its goals and increase his stake beyond 15 percent ownership of Twitter. If he increases his stake to above 15 percent, then Twitter has the right to sell more shares to other buyers at a discount. That is, Twitter will find a white knight. The New York Post reported that private equity giant Thoma Bravo was considering a bid. The firm, which manages $100 billion, definitely has the resources to friend Twitter and mute Musk. 

If not Thoma Bravo, then some other private equity firm could make a bid for Twitter. They obviously would know that they are buying an underperforming asset and squeezing out operational inefficiencies. A PE buyer would likely find a better management team than one currently in place, something the current board of directors should have done anyway. 

Musk or Not, Twitter CEO Needs To Go

When viewed with a broader lens, Twitter doesn’t have many options. Apple won’t want the mess on its hands. Thanks to its size and corporate needs, it is (Read more...)

Musk or Not, Twitter CEO Needs To Go

by Om Malik
This post is by Om Malik from On my Om

person holding a card with twitter text
Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

Elon Musk, currently the richest guy in the world, has decided he wants to buy Twitter. He has made an unsolicited offer to buy the company that would value the San Francisco-based social media company at over $43 billion. It is not clear whether he will be successful, but one thing is clear — in less than a month, he has turned Twitter into a stock market piñata. 

If not Musk, then someone from the private equity industry or one of the big technology companies — most likely Microsoft, given their cozy relationship with the U.S. government — will try and buy a company that, at best, has been a chronic underperformer. The company will be subject to many upheavals in the months to come. And the only real question we should be asking is: Does Twitter have the right captain to navigate the company through the stormy seas. Is the CEO Parag Agarwal, who replaced Jack Dorsey, up to snuff? 

Agarwal spent many years at the research divisions of Microsoft & Yahoo, including a stint at AT&T Labs, before joining Twitter in 2011 as a software engineer. He rose to the rank of the chief technology officer before he was named Dorsey’s replacement in November of 2021. Sure, Agarwal was at the company for a decade. So I will give him full points for understanding the company’s product and underlying technology. But is he the right leader? Is he the person with the (Read more...)

Musk or Not, Twitter CEO Needs To Go

by Om Malik
This post is by Om Malik from On my Om

person holding a card with twitter text
Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

Elon Musk, currently the richest guy in the world, has decided he wants to buy Twitter. He has made an unsolicited offer to buy the company that would value the San Francisco-based social media company at over $43 billion. It is not clear whether he will be successful, but one thing is clear — in less than a month, he has turned Twitter into a stock market piñata. 

If not Musk, then someone from the private equity industry or one of the big technology companies — most likely Microsoft, given their cozy relationship with the U.S. government — will try and buy a company that, at best, has been a chronic underperformer. The company will be subject to many upheavals in the months to come. And the only real question we should be asking is: Does Twitter have the right captain to navigate the company through the stormy seas. Is the CEO Parag Agarwal, who replaced Jack Dorsey, up to snuff? 

Agarwal spent many years at the research divisions of Microsoft & Yahoo, including a stint at AT&T Labs, before joining Twitter in 2011 as a software engineer. He rose to the rank of the chief technology officer before he was named Dorsey’s replacement in November of 2021. Sure, Agarwal was at the company for a decade. So I will give him full points for understanding the company’s product and underlying technology. But is he the right leader? Is he the person with the (Read more...)

04.04.2023 Musings

by Om Malik
This post is by Om Malik from On my Om

white ceramic mug and saucer with coffee beans on brown textile
Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash

Sometimes, when sitting quietly, enjoying a cooling cup of perfectly crafted pour-over coffee, I find myself staring at the back of my hand. In front of my eyes lies a landscape akin to the red sand of the American Southwest that lay baking under the scorching sun after a week of rain. You can see the time crisscrossing the skin, which has been losing a battle with the vanishing collagen. What was unseen slowly becomes more visible, crack by crack—a slow creep of the wrinkles. You can run, but you can’t hide from time.

When I am feeling down & urgently need retail therapy, I buy a pair of socks. Elon Musk buys 9.2 percent of @Twitter

Leichtman Research Group (LRG), a market research group, has collated the data for 2021 and “found that the largest cable and wireline phone providers in the U.S. – representing about 96% of the market” added 2.95 million net additional broadband Internet subscribers. These companies added 4.86 million subscribers in 2020 and 2.55 million in 2019.   They now account for 108.4 million subscribers — cable companies have 75.7 million broadband subscribers, while phone companies have 32.7 million subscribers.

Just because Facebook, Google, and everyone else has managed to erode our privacy and hoard our data doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take our privacy seriously. Why? Because data is personal and social. And like us humans, it ages with time, gets stale, and becomes pretty worthless. Any day is a (Read more...)

The Richest People in the World in 2022

by Dorothy Neufeld
This post is by Dorothy Neufeld from Visual Capitalist

Richest People in the World

The Richest People in the World in 2022

Today, the 10 richest people in the world control $1.3 trillion in wealth.

This scale of wealth is equal to approximately 1.4% of the world economy, Amazon’s entire market cap, or spending $1 million a day for 3,000 years. In fact, it’s double the amount seen just two years ago ($663 billion).

As billionaire wealth accumulates at a remarkable speed, we feature a snapshot of the world’s richest in 2022, based on data from the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List.

Top 10 Richest People in the World

Elon Musk, with a fortune of $212 billion, is the richest person on the planet.

Tesla delivered nearly one million vehicles globally in 2021. Despite facing a computer chip shortage, Tesla deliveries rose 87% year-over-year. Musk, who is also CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, plans to send the largest rocket ever built into orbit in 2022. It spans 119 meters tall.

Here are the richest people in the world, based on data as of March 14, 2022:

RankNameSourceNet Worth (Mar 2022)Net Worth (Mar 2021)Change 2021-22
1Elon MuskTesla, SpaceX$212B$151B$61B
2Jeff BezosAmazon$168B$177B-$9B
3
Bernard Arnault & family
LVMH$159B$150B$9B
4Bill GatesMicrosoft$130B$124B$6B
5Warren Buffett
Berkshire Hathaway
$119B$96B$23B
6Larry PageGoogle$108B$92B$16B
7Larry EllisonOracle$105B$93B$12B
8Sergey BrinGoogle$105B$89B$16B
9
Mukesh Ambani
 (Read more...)

The World’s Billionaires, by Generation

by Dorothy Neufeld
This post is by Dorothy Neufeld from Visual Capitalist

infographic showing the world's billionaires by generation

The World’s Billionaires, by Generation

What similarities do the world’s billionaires share? What are their differences?

At the age of 12, Elon Musk built his first video game. Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg shared an interest in computer programming, building a simple messaging platform at the same age. The co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, developed programming skills at college. All three span different generations and made their fortunes in tech.

In this infographic from BusinessFinancing.co.uk, we explore some characteristics of billionaires across generations, including their average net worth, top sectors, number of children, and most common city of residence.

The World’s Billionaires, by Generation

Using data from Forbes here is how each generation of the world’s billionaires break down.

Silent Generation

  • Born: 1928-1945
  • Average Net Worth: $5.5 billion
  • Most Popular Residence: New York, U.S.

Silent Generation billionaires are the wealthiest on average across generations. With CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett and Zara founder Amancio Ortega among its ranks, Silent Generation billionaires are most likely to be in finance, fashion, and real estate industries.

Top 5Sector%
1
Finance & Investments15.5%
2Fashion & Retail12.4%
3Real Estate9.8%
4Food & Beverage9.0%
5Manufacturing9.0%

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and The New York Post, is also part of this group. He has a net worth of $13 billion.

Baby Boomer

  • Born: 1946-1964
  • Average Net Worth: $4.6 billion
  • Most Popular Residence: New York, U.S.

Like the (Read more...)

A Decade of Elon Musk’s Tweets, Visualized

by Carmen Ang
This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist

View the full-size version of this graphic.

A Decade of Elon Musk's Tweets, Visualized

An Analysis of Elon Musk’s Entire Twitter Feed

Elon Musk is known for many things, but one of his most buzzworthy claims to fame is his online Twitter presence.

Because of its candid nature, Musk’s Twitter feed provides the public with a unique opportunity to catch an unfiltered look into his eccentric mind.

What can we learn from an in-depth look at Elon Musk’s Twitter feed? What subjects does he focus on the most, and how has his Twitter use changed over the past decade?

We sifted through his entire tweet history to find out.

Why Bother?

To gain a high-level understanding of Musk’s Twitter profile, our research team sifted through his entire Twitter feed and compiled 15,000 of his tweets into a comprehensive dataset.

Why go to all the effort? Here are a few reasons why we spent months sifting through Elon Musk’s Twitter feed:

  • People care about what he has to say: Musk has over 77 million followers on Twitter, and his account is currently the 11th most followed (coming in between Ellen DeGeneres and Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India). Even run-of-the-mill replies to regular Twitter users receive thousands of shares, likes, and comments. Clearly, people are interested in his ideas and interactions.
  • Musk tweets often, and candidly: These days, it’s not uncommon for Musk to share more than 30 tweets in a single day. And his Twitter conversations cover a wide range of topics, from serious (Read more...)

The Cost of Space Flight Before and After SpaceX

by Bruno Venditti
This post is by Bruno Venditti from Visual Capitalist

The Cost of Space Flight Before and After SpaceX

The Cost of Space Flight Before and After SpaceX

On December 21, 2021, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a cargo capsule to deliver supplies and Christmas gifts to astronauts in the International Space Station.

Just eight minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, landing on one of SpaceX’s drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean. This marked the company’s 100th successful landing.

Like other companies such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Ball Aerospace, SpaceX is designing and building innovative spacecraft that are speeding up space delivery by making it more routine and affordable. But how much does it cost to launch a cargo rocket into space, and how has this cost changed over the years?

In the graphic above we take a look at the cost per kilogram for space launches across the globe since 1960, based on data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Space Race

The 20th-century was marked by competition between two Cold War adversaries, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States, to achieve superior spaceflight capability.

The space race led to great technological advances, but these innovations came at a high cost. For instance, during the 1960s NASA spent $28 billion to land astronauts on the moon, a cost today equating to about $288 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.

In the last two decades, space startup companies have demonstrated they can compete against heavyweight aerospace contractors as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Today, a SpaceX rocket launching can be 97% cheaper (Read more...)