I really hate Axios’ format, but they’re not wrong.
Elon Musk overpaid for Twitter when he bought it for $44 billion in late 2022, after unsuccessfully trying to renegotiate or renege.
Now a new conventional wisdom is emerging: Twitter is a loss leader for the rest of Elon Inc.
The argument is that Musk bought Twitter for power, not profit. And that the gamble paid off.
- Musk used the platform to help shape public opinion during the election, artificially amplifying his political messages and giving him- influence with Donald Trump that money alone wouldn’t have bought.
- Trump’s victory means that Musk has become the most powerful unelected American ever — and that could be a boon for SpaceX and Tesla, whose fortunes are heavily dependent on federal government contracts and policies.-
- Those two companies also are much larger than Twitter/X, even at $44 billion, and more core to Musk’s lifelong goals.
And yet he got everything he wanted. And Twitter was a big help.
I don’t think he’s a genius. You don’t have to be a genius when you can buy your way into and out of anything.
As long as we’re not assuming he bought Twitter with this outcome in sight I can accept that.
Honestly my pet theory is that he bought Twitter to destroy it after his breakup with Grimes… kinda like throwing your ex’s clothes out the window. They separated in March 2022 and Musk started his bullshit offers in April 2022. It was probably either for revenge or just because he was off balance emotionally.