Shortly before completing the $44bn takeover, Elon Musk described the deal as an ‘accelerant to creating X, the everything app’.Shortly before completing the $44bn takeover, Elon Musk described the deal as an ‘accelerant to creating X, the everything app’.
Bruce Daisley, the former head of Twitter’s European operations, said the rebranding move had damaged a business that was in “brand heaven”. But even before completing the takeover – a tortuous process in itself – Musk had signalled that he aimed to reduce the platform’s reliance on advertising via a subscription drive, which he also hoped would reduce the number of automated accounts vexing the social network.
“With the changes he has made, not least bringing in paid verification, he has served to reduce the quality of the platform. When you include the capricious decision-making, advertisers have said: ‘We don’t want to be part of that.’”One of Musk’s first acts as owner of Twitter was firing approximately 50% of the platform’s 7,500 staff.