San Francisco:
Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk on Thursday raised the possibility of the social media platform going bankrupt, capping a chaotic day that included a warning from a U.S. regulator and the departures of top executives seen as future leaders.
The billionaire told Twitter employees on a call he couldn’t rule out bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported, two weeks after buying it for $44 billion – a deal that credit experts say , has left Twitter’s finances in a precarious position.
Two executives – Yoel Roth and Robin Wheeler – who moderated a Twitter Spaces chat with Musk on Wednesday as he tried to assuage advertisers’ concerns have quit, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Roth and Wheeler did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bloomberg and technology site Platformer reported the releases first.
Earlier Thursday, Twitter Chief Security Officer Lea Kissner tweeted that she had quit.
Chief privacy officer Damien Kieran and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty have also resigned, according to an internal message posted on Twitter’s Slack messaging system on Thursday by a lawyer on its privacy team and seen by Reuters.
The US Federal Trade Commission said it was monitoring Twitter with “deep concern” after the departure of the three privacy and compliance officers. These resignations potentially put Twitter at risk of violating regulatory orders.
During his first meeting with all Twitter employees on Thursday afternoon, Musk warned that the company could lose billions of dollars next year, Information reported.
Twitter did not respond to requests for comment on a potential bankruptcy, the FTC warning or the departures.
Wheeler was Twitter’s face for publicity after Musk took office. Roth, who was head of security and integrity at Twitter, said Twitter reduced the number of views of harmful content in search results by 95% compared to before Musk’s acquisition.
Musk, who ruthlessly moved into a clean house after taking over Twitter for $44 billion on Oct. 27, said the company was losing more than $4 million a day largely because advertisers began to flee once he took over.
Musk has burdened Twitter with $13 billion in debt, on which he will have to pay interest totaling nearly $1.2 billion over the next 12 months. The payouts exceed Twitter’s most recently disclosed cash flow, which stood at $1.1 billion at the end of June.
Musk announced plans to halve its workforce last week, promised to stop fake accounts and charges $8 a month for the Twitter Blue service which will include blue check verification.
Warning
“We are following recent developments on Twitter with deep concern,” Douglas Farrar, director of public affairs at the FTC, told Reuters.
“No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees. Our revised consent decree gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are ready to use them,” said said Farrar.
In May, Twitter agreed to pay $150 million to settle FTC allegations that it misused private information, such as phone numbers, to target advertising to users after telling them the information had only been collected for security reasons.
In the internal memo cited above, the lawyer mentioned hearing from Twitter’s chief legal officer, Alex Spiro, that Musk was willing to take “an enormous amount of risk” with Twitter. “Elon puts rockets in space, he’s not afraid of the FTC,” the attorney quoted Spiro as saying.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on the attorney’s memo or the departures. Spiro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Twitter takeover has raised concerns that Musk, who has often waded into political debates, could face pressure from countries trying to control online speech.
That prompted US President Joe Biden to say on Wednesday that “Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries are worth considering.”
Advertisers not reassured
Musk told advertisers on Wednesday, speaking on Twitter’s Spaces feature, that he aimed to turn the platform into a force for truth and stop fake accounts.
His assurances may not be enough.
Chipotle Mexican Grill said Thursday it has removed its paid and detained content on Twitter “while we better understand the direction of the platform under its new leadership.”
He joined other brands, including General Motors, which have suspended advertising on Twitter since Musk took over, fearing he was relaxing content moderation rules.
Musk sent his first email to Twitter employees on Thursday, saying remote work would no longer be allowed and they would be expected in the office for at least 40 hours a week, according to Bloomberg News.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)