Chief Twit

[Mr. Dazzle]

I have mentioned before how the most advanced ICBM tech is in the hands of a slightly odd billionaire

[Hoonercat]

If shareholders are the owners and shareholders don't lose money when a company loses money then it follows that owners don't lose money when a company loses money. Which is nonsense.

Depends where the company are getting their finances from. I bet you've got/had shares in a loss making company at some point (if you had private pension you probably did). Did anyone ever come knocking on your door asking for debt payments?

It's a complicated affair, but "shareholder" doesn't necessarily mean "financier".

TBF it does more in Twitter's case cause there's a very limited number of shareholders now.

Edit: think about what happens when a comapny loses money. They have to get more from somewhere...that's doesn't have to be the shareholders and in fact frequently isn't. You can even make profit as a shareholder from a loss making business...if you buy right at the bottom of share price, then sell when the shares climb youd make money even if the underlying business was loss making throughout.

Bloomberg estimate that the interest payments alone will amount to $1billion per year. Twitter has only made profits in 2018 and 2019, $1.2 and £1.46 billion. Although only 17% of its users are American, the US accounts for 50% of its revenue, mainly advertising, so if he wants to make it profitable (or at least not loss-making) he's going to have to tread very carefully, not something you'd normally associate with Musk.
According to one analyst, Musk would need 10 million people to sign up for the blue tick at $8 per month just to pay off the loan interest. There are currently a reported 400,000 blue tick users.

[Saga Lout]

Depends where the company are getting their finances from. I bet you've got/had shares in a loss making company at some point (if you had private pension you probably did). Did anyone ever come knocking on your door asking for debt payments?

It's a complicated affair, but "shareholder" doesn't necessarily mean "financier".

TBF it does more in Twitter's case cause there's a very limited number of shareholders now.

Edit: think about what happens when a comapny loses money. They have to get more from somewhere...that's doesn't have to be the shareholders and in fact frequently isn't. You can even make profit as a shareholder from a loss making business...if you buy right at the bottom of share price, then sell when the shares climb youd make money even if the underlying business was loss making throughout.

Let's try a thought experiment. We'll make it simple:

Imagine I start a company and you buy 1,000 shares at £1 each in my company.
I then proceed to run the company into the ground and bankrupt it. (Very likely if I'm in charge. Tip: don't buy shares in any company run by me.)
You receive a penny for each share, i.e. £10. But you haven't lost £990 because shareholders don't lose money when a company loses money.
Or maybe you sold the shares to some mug for £2 each. You made £1,000 but the buyer didn't lose £1,990 because he's the new shareholder and... see above.

Some people win and some people lose but whoever is left holding the parcel when the music stops lose his money.

[Mr. Dazzle]

That is why I said share holders don't necessarily lose money.

And why I started the next post with the word "depends".

[mangocrazy]

I find it hard to reconcile that Elon Musk can at the same time be the richest person in the world and such a loose cannon when it comes to his tweets, comments and seemingly random acquisition of companies. I guess it appears random to me, but there is actually A Plan; that's all I can think of. Doesn't he give any thought to how his comments appear to current and potential investors, especially as owner of a platform that relies so heavily on advertising revenue?

I think back to 'that pedo guy' comment about one of the cave rescuers in Thailand and wonder what on earth goes through his head at times like that. I have no interest in Twitter and have never used it, so will watch with interest to see where Musk goes with it and whether or not he can make a success of it.

[Mr. Dazzle]

His wealth is nearly entirely based off Tesla isn't it?

Doubtless some very good decisions were made, but a large chunk of it has to go to "right time right place".

To be fair, those last 4 words sum up most business success.

[weeksy]

I I have no interest in Twitter and have never used it,

Me neither, but I also don't care about Musk. This thread is the only reason I know he bought Twitter

[Cousin Jack]

Shareholders don't necessarily lose money when a company does anyway. People always seems to forget that the only times shareholders actually directly put money into a company is during its IPO and then if said company asks for input. If you just buy shares in a company your money doesn't go to said firm.

If shareholders are the owners and shareholders don't lose money when a company loses money then it follows that owners don't lose money when a company loses money. Which is nonsense.

I have an aquaintance who has owned a number of firms that all lost money and eventually were liquidated. Somehow he made a very good living from it. Some of his suppliers and customers lost a packet.

[mangocrazy]

I I have no interest in Twitter and have never used it,

Me neither, but I also don't care about Musk. This thread is the only reason I know he bought Twitter

I really don't care about Musk. It's more a case of perplexed fascination that he gets away with so much stuff and wondering if he can continue to do so.

[Ant]

I I have no interest in Twitter and have never used it,

Me neither, but I also don't care about Musk. This thread is the only reason I know he bought Twitter

I really don't care about Musk. It's more a case of perplexed fascination that he gets away with so much stuff and wondering if he can continue to do so.

What has musk 'got away' with'?

[mangocrazy]

Me neither, but I also don't care about Musk. This thread is the only reason I know he bought Twitter

I really don't care about Musk. It's more a case of perplexed fascination that he gets away with so much stuff and wondering if he can continue to do so.

What has musk 'got away' with'?

See my earlier comment about 'that pedo guy' for one.

[Mussels]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the big brands pulled their marketing purely to try and get a better deal with Twitter's new management.

I logged into Twitter yesterday for the first time in many years, it was like someone gathered up comments from gobby drunks in every pub and chucked them in front of me.
It was all about immigrants and a footballer being called out as a hypocrite by Ian Hislop. Those two comments repeated by dozens of unknown people is not interesting. Then some American political rants crept in, it would benefit from a filter to remove any posts mentioning Trump or Biden.

In the end I switched off feeling the best thing I'd seen in an hour of reading were a few passive aggressive post-it notes.

[Ant]

I really don't care about Musk. It's more a case of perplexed fascination that he gets away with so much stuff and wondering if he can continue to do so.

What has musk 'got away' with'?

See my earlier comment about 'that pedo guy' for one.

That's one. He didn't get away with it, it went to court and it was dealt with.

So, what does he get away with ?

[mangocrazy]

What has musk 'got away' with'?

See my earlier comment about 'that pedo guy' for one.

That's one. He didn't get away with it, it went to court and it was dealt with.

So, what does he get away with ?

Look mate, I have no interest in sparring with you. Shouldn't you be watching MotoGP?

[Ant]

See my earlier comment about 'that pedo guy' for one.

That's one. He didn't get away with it, it went to court and it was dealt with.

So, what does he get away with ?

Look mate, I have no interest in sparring with you. Shouldn't you be watching MotoGP?

Sparring? I've asked you a question based on what you said. I had assumed that you knew what you meant when you said it, so I wanted clarity.

So, you're more interested in shutting conversation down rather than discussing the matter in a thread created for him in which you said something?

There's a bit of a theme here.....

[mangocrazy]

That's one. He didn't get away with it, it went to court and it was dealt with.

So, what does he get away with ?

Look mate, I have no interest in sparring with you. Shouldn't you be watching MotoGP?

Sparring? I've asked you a question based on what you said. I had assumed that you knew what you meant when you said it, so I wanted clarity.

So, you're more interested in shutting conversation down rather than discussing the matter in a thread created for him in which you said something?

There's a bit of a theme here.....

You don't want clarity, you want an argument, and I'm not interested. And the conversation will go on, with or without me.

[Ant]

Look mate, I have no interest in sparring with you. Shouldn't you be watching MotoGP?

Sparring? I've asked you a question based on what you said. I had assumed that you knew what you meant when you said it, so I wanted clarity.

So, you're more interested in shutting conversation down rather than discussing the matter in a thread created for him in which you said something?

There's a bit of a theme here.....

You don't want clarity, you want an argument, and I'm not interested. And the conversation will go on, with or without me.

If I wanted an argument, this couldn't have been easier for you, as you should stop me in my tracks with an answer.

The fact that you see it as an argument tells me that you didn't know what you meant when you said that Musk gets away with things, as all I've done is asked what he gets away with and you have responded to me, but with attempts to not have the conversation which you entered into.

Like I say, there's a theme here.....

[Count Steer]

And the conversation will go on, with or without me.

Possibly.

[weeksy]

That's the problem with this section, people throw out ill-informed comments that they cannot back up and then an argument ensues when they get called on it and cannot back it up and/or won't admit that they don't know as much as they thought they did.

Nah, the problem is that every post is picked apart in detail for the slightest possible error/thought

[Mr. Dazzle]

That's the problem with this section, people

Brevity is a virtue.