this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
1044 points (96.6% liked)

Technology

59575 readers
4163 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 236 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Cheer up Elon - it wasn't worth $44B when you bought it, so it's lost significantly less value than you think!

[–] Endorkend@kbin.social 67 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Most valuations by actual economists and the like was in the 20-25B range. So it still lost a 5x in value, which is only marginally worse than 10x.

Meanwhile, you have the Elon fanboys still pretending Twitter is doing better than it ever has.

[–] paper_clip@kbin.social 58 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Meanwhile, you have the Elon fanboys still pretending Twitter is doing better than it ever has.
reply

Well, it is, if you're a Nazi.

[–] CMLVI@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

Same person

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Clown_Tempura@lemmy.world 225 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It astounds and amazes me that there was a time Elon could have feasibly been considered a smart, level-headed entrepreneur. The whole submarine thing with the trapped kids really was the beginning of his unraveling. I for one thank Elon Musk for proving once and for all to even the most shameless corpo-apologists that having a ton of money doesn't magically make you smart or cool. The dude's an idiot, and I love watching him self-destruct.

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 113 points 1 year ago (3 children)

At one point they even had him cameo in iron man, and had him name dropped on star trek as a pioneer of human discovery. People used to jerk off to this dude's PR image like he was a real life Tony Stark.

[–] phillaholic@lemm.ee 36 points 1 year ago (3 children)

If he stayed off Twitter he'd have a pretty impressive CV. Mainstream electric cars, actually usable Satellite Internet, Major Solar Panels etc. Even weird shit like Hyperloop would just be random neat things.

[–] sushibowl@feddit.nl 57 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Same with JK Rowling, Kanye West, Notch, etc. It's literally so fucking easy for people like this to remain loved by everyone. Just keep your fucking mouth shut. Give nice polite interviews about your job, stay out of politics, let a boring publicity agent manage your social media for you, and enjoy your billions of dollars in peace.

Why is it so hard?

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They put him on Rick and Morty in the most cringe inducing fashions and it was like watching a cartoon suck off a guy.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago (4 children)

He's mentioned in star trek discovery as if he took us to mars. Those lines aged so poorly

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When he called the submarine expert a pedo was when I started to go, "Is this guy being for real?"

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] collegefurtrader@discuss.tchncs.de 172 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

He overpaid for a piece of shit and ran it into the ground.

Everyone with a used BMW knows the feeling.

[–] hypnotoad__@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Please stop attacking my character based on terrible purchase decisions

What a beautiful car

Until I owned it

[–] Nerdulous@lemm.ee 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'll never forget my Sweet 3 series... Because I'm still paying for it's repairs years later.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] MaxHardwood@lemmy.ca 85 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I could be remembering wrong but Twitter was only worth $15B at best, and Elon bought it for $44B because he's that smart.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I genuinely think he's just a pawn in a bigger game in which some powers wanted twitter gone.

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bluestribute@lemmy.world 72 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Didn't Elon have the opportunity to end world hunger for 8 billion dollars a couple years ago?

[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 76 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Almost. He said that if anyone could present a plan on how to end world hunger for $6B, he'd sell Tesla stock to pay for it.

The U.N. publicly presented a plan on how they'd use that $6B, but it fell way short of that goal. Which isn't surprising, since they never claimed they could solve world hunger permanently for $6B. Musk's challenge was rhetorical because the bar was impossibly high. He was really just trying to make the point that he does not have the money to truly end world hunger.

The U.N.'s plan for that $6B would "feed 42 million people for one year, and avert the risk of famine". That's nothing to sneeze at, obviously, but it's not a permanent solution.

Friendly reminder, for context, that the U.S. military budget is $842B. For one year.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 61 points 1 year ago (5 children)

For that to be true, it would have needed to be worth $44B in the first place, which it absolutely was not. But there is no doubt that his mismanagement has tanked the value of the investment. He's a narcissist so never see it that way, but the whole rest of the world knows that.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Iwasondigg@lemmy.one 59 points 1 year ago

South African Magician Makes $40B Disappear!

[–] Cabrio@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Trashcan@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

This is the quote:

"I don't see any scenario where they're responsible for less than 10% of the value destruction, so around $4 billion."

In my head, he is comparing the minimum size of ADLs value reduction to be 10% or 4 billion. 10% of 44 billion is 4,4 billion. In this comment he is not saying anything about the current value except that 10% of 44 is around 4.

How else can you read it?

[–] RekcuffuckeR@feddit.de 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

He's saying that 10% of the value reduction is 4 billion so the total value reduction is 40 billion (of the 44 billion he bought it for).

But you're right, he probably meant it like you read it and just failed to express himself properly.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 54 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Imagine having so much wealth that he can walk away from his utter failure at Xitter and remain completely unaffected. For him, this is like some side-hustle vanity project a bored trophy wife runs.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can this fuck buy russia and fox “news”?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] dbilitated@aussie.zone 46 points 1 year ago

let that sink in.

[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 45 points 1 year ago (7 children)

$4B seems also a tad too high.

[–] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Best I can do is tree fiddy.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago (4 children)

No tears shed here. The people who built Twitter got a nice payout when they absolutely robbed Elon Musk in that deal. Anyone who chose to stay on the Elon train after his first weeks at the helm gets no sympathy from me.

[–] justastranger@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Anyone who chose to stay on the Elon train after his first weeks at the helm gets no sympathy from me.

Except for the green card holders whose residency in the US was literally held hostage by Elon.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] mog77a@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Facts.

Elon tried so hard to back down from that deal. I'm not sure why it took actually signing that deal to realize he had been hosed.

If I was an executive at twitter, I would have absolutely done everything possible to get Elon to pay that $44 billion.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Elon: Fuck you Twitter!

Twitter: Fuck yourself, Elon!

Elon: Oh yeah? Maybe I’ll just BUY you.

Twitter: Ha! No you can’t….

Elon: No? Watch this!

Twitter: Gotcha, dipshit.

Elon: What? Wait no!

Twitter: Ahem… judge?

Judge: They got you, dipshit.

Elon: (unbans Trump) Nyah-Nyah!

Twitter: Ahahahaha (all the way to the bank)

Elon: Everyone see this? This is the ADL’s fault!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Saneless@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't normally trust his math but he might have gotten this one right

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I really hope the original owners re-buy Twitter for a fraction of what they sold it for lol

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] dangblingus@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (9 children)

He's just that good at business. Truly an unstoppable force in the world of commerce. Capitalism really is the best system. No problems.

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nobody ever said you had to be smart to be a billionaire... or a good person.

[–] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 31 points 1 year ago (6 children)

You strictly cannot become a billionaire and be a good person at the same time.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Listen all y’all it’s a SABOTAGE

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 year ago (5 children)

That might be giving Musk too much credit. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] ganksy@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

I'm sure Putin and the Saudis comped him accordingly

[–] c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This serves him somehow, not sure how but he's used social media and PR to make money through market manipulation before.

I doubt his mental math is accurate on the value loss anyways.

[–] whats_a_refoogee@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Or he's just a narcissist that can't run a company if he's not held on a leash by people who actually know what they're doing.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] moitoi@feddit.de 21 points 1 year ago

According to real math, Elon always overestimates the value.

[–] darq@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

When you have a net worth measured in the billions of dollars, it's genuinely impressive to be able to lose money. With that kind of sum behind your name, you could just do nothing and out-earn most people on the planet with just interest alone. To actually be able to lose money? Now that takes work!

[–] fidodo@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

And he's blaming the anti defamation league...

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›