Musk’s repeated outbursts against advertisers have dried up the main source of revenue for the loss-making company formerly known as Twitter. A recent decision to sue them for heeding his own advice to not buy ads on the platform hasn’t helped. At some point, he will have to provide a fresh infusion of cash to salvage his $44 billion takeover.

  • Flying Squid
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    3073 months ago

    I believe the appropriate thing to say to Elon here is, “go fuck yourself.”

  • John Richard
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    1103 months ago

    I have to give Musk credit. At least he help narrow my car buying decision to know at least one brand that I’ll never buy.

    • @Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      383 months ago

      There are many reasons to avoid Tesla, regardless of Musk. The complete lack of independent repair was my deal breaker, but you’ll find your own. Their competition is looking pretty good these days, too.

      • @DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
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        123 months ago

        I was talking with a solar company about a solar install with battery storage last year, and they only offered the Powerwall as an option. I literally laughed at them and said there was no way I was tying an enormously expensive piece of home infrastructure to Tesla, because they couldn’t guarantee it’d keep working if Tesla decided to shift direction.

        • @octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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          53 months ago

          I have rejected every one of the endless stream of door to door solar panel sellers primarily because not ONE would leave me substantial documentation of any kind to decide if I wanted to talk to them - the only thing they wanted was a full “consultation.” My view is that if you can’t give me something that illustrates genearlly what you are about to pitch to me, then you probably just want the chance to apply some shady sales tactics.

          Were these door to door guys? Did you go with them? Do you have any opinions on the door to door guys? 🙂

          • @DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
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            33 months ago

            No, this was part of a group buy program in my area, which was designed to reduce prices. I ended up turning them down because it was still more expensive than it seemed like it should be, and they were going with an older single inverter system instead of a newer and more efficient micro inverter system.

            I’ve heard the door to door guys tend to massively upcharge. I haven’t had any come through here, though, so I don’t have any direct experience.

            • @octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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              23 months ago

              Thanks! (Sorry for the late reply.) Any particular resources you’d recommend for research? Everything I find googling is either immediately clearly an advertisement, or becomes clearly an advertisement as I continue reading.

              • @DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
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                23 months ago

                Honestly I don’t have anything specific I’d recommend. When I was looking into it, I just did a ton of reading on forums along with articles about how to get everything set up. I also looked at the prices I was offered compared to the prices I’d be able to pay elsewhere, and got quotes from several different companies.

                In the end there were a bunch of reasons I didn’t go with solar. I really love it as an idea, and I really want to do it, but it’s enormously expensive. There are lease options, but they’re also expensive and many of them seemed predatory. My utility ended their purchasing program for solar-generated power, and I’m still required to pay a large monthly fee to be connected to the grid, so I couldn’t plan to offset my costs there either. The tax credits are helpful, but you still need to pay up front.

                • @octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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                  23 months ago

                  Thanks! I appreciate this analysis - and predatory is exactly how I felt about the people who came to my door, even if they were polite and friendly, and even though I couldn’t seem to dig out that word.

    • @TheBraveSirRobbin@lemmy.world
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      143 months ago

      Are there? Last I’d heard other options either didn’t have infrastructure to charge vehicles on long trips and / or took too long to charge.

      I really haven’t looked into this so please just take this as a genuine question, and if you do have suggestions on other EVs I’d be curious what they are even though I’m not really in the market for one right now.

      • @jaemo@sh.itjust.works
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        203 months ago

        I’ve no complaints about the 2020 Ioniq. Road trips we’ve taken have all had more than adequate chargers, but contextually this is Vancouver Island/Lower Mainland/Gulf islands and they government definitely had a hard-on to put in as much as they could a few years ago, so finally ownership density is starting to catch up a tad now, but new chargers seem to appear all the time.

        Nothing beats just being able to charge at home though.

      • @CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
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        173 months ago

        Last I’d heard other options either didn’t have infrastructure to charge vehicles on long trips

        Literally isn’t an issue going forward. Other EVs can use Tesla chargers.

        • @sfbing@lemmy.world
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          13 months ago

          “Going forward” is actually “not quite yet” for most non-Te sla manufacturers, unfortunately.

      • Rivians seem to be (a) popular, and (b) getting much better reviews than the Cybertruck. So if you’re truck hunting, that’s a good option.

        Didn’t the industry recently standardize on the Tesla connector, though? Wouldn’t that mean you could charge at any Tesla station?

        These aren’t Tesla specific.

        • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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          Didn’t the industry recently standardize on the Tesla connector

          Most of the industry announced that they will standardize on NACS. I believe they expect to actually do it over 2025-2026. That’s not far off but it’s not now.

          I just got back from a 1,200 mile road trip and the Tesla Superchargers were plentiful, fast, easy. The first was at a mall, where the car was done charging by the time we found the food court.

          I suppose I can’t really comment on other brands, except the one time I tried, I didn’t have the right adapter.

          Rivians seem like great technology and styling, however they’re on their first pair of high end vehicles. They’ve announced more reasonably priced models that could be built in higher quantity but they’re not selling them yet. I suppose that does compare with Tesla only selling “Foundation Series” trim level but the difference is those are intended to have a lower cost trim

  • @some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    623 months ago

    That’s because it is almost exclusively tied up in his various corporate holdings that include everything from rocket builder SpaceX and brain chip company Neuralink to his latest startup, xAI.

    None of these investments are easily fungible. Only Tesla is a publicly traded company. So the easiest solution at his fingertips is to liquidate a portion of his remaining 12% stake.

    Let it fucking burn.

  • @rsuri@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    He’ll probably just get tesla shareholders to gift him the money. They’ve shown they’ll sign off on pretty much anything he asks for.

    • @Laser@feddit.org
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      443 months ago

      Musk: How about a multiple billion dollar pay package?
      Sane people: You’ve already had it.
      Musk: I’ve had one, yes. What about a second multiple billion dollar pay package?

      • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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        13 months ago

        The thing y’all keep forgetting is that it’s mostly in stock. He has HUGE incentive to keep Tesla going successfully, because of the immediate impact of the stock price on his wealth

        • @Laser@feddit.org
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          Even if I didn’t know that, after 10 seconds of thinking it would be clear that a company that made about $46bn in the last four years can’t just pay out more than that in actual money, they don’t have the cash reserves.

          For him, he can borrow against the stocks, so it’s about as good as money, maybe not 100%, but still a sizeable amount.

          I think it’s dumb to agree to goals and compensation / rewards after the goals have already been met. I can’t go to my employer and retroactively demand more pay for previously agreed work, even if it turned out better than he or the customer expected.

          I think Tesla stock holders were mislead and / or stupid, there’s no dividend so the only way to profit is to sell at one point, and Tesla’s position in the market is only getting weaker by the year. Outside of their car business, they have nothing of interest, though some people will never tire to emphasized that Tesla is a tech company - just what that concrete tech is that other companies or customers will want is still somewhat of a mystery. Same if it justifies current market evaluation.

          I wouldn’t bet against Tesla stocks - I know the market can stay irrational longer than I can stay solvent.

          Given Musk’s recent behavior alienating his potential core customers, he is a liability rather than an asset. The cybertruck damaged the brand, the semi which was delayed by 3 years does not fit the needs ICE trucks do, rental and other companies are phasing out Teslas because of their fast depreciation- but robotaxis will fix it, right?

          How anyone has a positive outlook on their performance with him as the CEO is almost beyond me, but if you assume there’s a personality cult, it makes sense.

    • @Tyfud@lemmy.world
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      That’s because he installed his family and sycophants into the board at Tesla. They were literally put there to vote for whatever he wants. The shareholders approved the board appointees, and now they’re completely fucked unless someone calls for a full replacement of the board of executives at Tesla.

      It’s his company, for better (unlikely) or worse (very likely).

      Edit, for reference.

      His brother is literally one of the board members.

  • Zier
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    463 months ago

    2 4 1 deal, how to trash 2 companies at once. Good job space karen!

  • @ArugulaZ@lemmy.zip
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    433 months ago

    Maybe if he was smart, he’d just give up on the social network and sell it off to someone else. But he’s not smart, so he’ll keep sinking money into it until cooler heads in the company prevail. The era of social media dominance, I’m sorry to say, is over.

  • @irreticent@lemmy.world
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    423 months ago

    “A recent decision to sue them for heeding his own advice to not buy ads on the platform hasn’t helped.”

    Gotta love it. He told advertisers to fuck off, they fucked off, now he’s even more mad at them.

  • @vga@sopuli.xyz
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    3 months ago

    Could he sell all of it? And then completely fuck off? br, tesla (car) owner

    • @Nurgus@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Who would buy it now, though? It can’t have much value left. (Edit: Twitter. Not talking about Tesla, that’s a whole different arc.)

      • @vga@sopuli.xyz
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        Judging by the used car online sites, it has about as much value left as any other car with similar age and kilometers. If I had to buy a car right now, I’d probably take a hard look at the alternatives. But they’d have to actually be better, I usually make car purchase decisions based on the qualities of the car.

        Although Musk is certainly trying to make such principles difficult.

        Good thing my car is new enough that I don’t have to make this choice for several years. Perhaps the competition will have caught up by the time I need to get a new one.

          • @vga@sopuli.xyz
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            I’m glad it worked for you. Things will have to change a bit globally that I would consider a BYD.

            Oh right, perhaps already I don’t make purchase decisions purely based on the qualities of the car :)

            • @gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com
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              63 months ago

              I figures it was a simple calculus, especially since BYD is the OEM that supplies parts for many of the other brands, especially the batteries.

              I’d rather benefit from that status than support a egotist like Musk. Besides anywhere outside America the Teslas are made in China, just like the BYDs 😆

              • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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                13 months ago

                I’d rather benefit from that status than support a egotist like Musk

                Have you looked at what your money would support, buying from BYD? If part of your decision is who profits, both choices are horrible and you could argue Musk I less horrible. This is one of the reasons I try to keep that out of my decisions.

          • @toasteecup@lemmy.world
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            13 months ago

            I’m in the very very early stages of ecar research. Mind helping me and share what features or data make the BYD Seal better than a Tesla?

        • Todd Bonzalez
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          33 months ago

          The price of used Teslas has nothing to do with the value of Tesla stock.

          Intel’s stock dropped from $50 to $20 over the last year, but their processors still cost the same.

    • @auzy@lemmy.world
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      223 months ago

      The problem with Tesla really is Elon.

      If he sells his majority stake, I suspect it would be a lot better.

      The biggest reason against buying them is him. They also make more than cars (their powerwalls seem alright).

      If X fails though, I suspect all those bigots will flood over to here (Facebook and X seem to be distracting them for now).

      Let them have their nazi prison. Just make it not profitable

      • @A7thStone@lemmy.world
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        83 months ago

        Personally I’d be wary of putting a giant brick of lithium in my house, especially from a company with the questionable quality control of Tesla.

        • @auzy@lemmy.world
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          I agree partially, but in practice, the LFP batteries should be fine (I would never trust the PowerWall 2).

          Unfortunately, been looking at other alternatives, and there don’t seem to be many seamless home batteries that cut in instantly in the event of a power outage (like an online UPS) either.

          The reality is though, I expect Tesla to lose this market anyway (they only just introduced the PowerWall 3 in AU… Even cheap chinese manufacturers have been using LFP for a while)

      • @Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
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        83 months ago

        The people who aren’t buying Teslas because they hate Musk aren’t gonna change their mind because he sold some stock. The company is tainted forever.

        • @auzy@lemmy.world
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          53 months ago

          They won’t a tiny amount… But controlling share they might.

          I can’t afford a Tesla. However, my biggest concern is that musk will half arse firmware or sabotage the company somehow.

          If he doesn’t have controlling share, that’s a win and I suspect quality control will likely improve too

        • ...m...
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          The company is tainted forever.

          …he didn’t found the company, engineer the cars, systems, nor infrastructure: there’s a lot of salvageable value in tesla if he goes away…

          • @auzy@lemmy.world
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            13 months ago

            The only real engineering he’s done is likely the boring company (who the duck wants to drive in a claustrophobic one lane tunnel) and the submarine thing the cave divers said wouldn’t work (so he called them pedos)

            • @Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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              23 months ago

              He didn’t engineer anything because he doesn’t know how. At most he drew some kindergarten levels drawings on a white board.

              • @auzy@lemmy.world
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                The reality is… He is an engineer. Not all engineers have good ideas.

                The difference is, he won’t accept criticism

                I do software development and have had a few crap ideas (I once thought I could make a optimised OpenGL library using Matricies). The difference between normal people and him, is that when I got told it was a crap idea, I deleted the project. When he gets a crap idea, he attacks the person giving feedback, so there is NO incentive to provide anything but good feedback

                When you’re surrounded by yes men you’ll only increasingly become over confident in yourself

                • @Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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                  No, Elon isn’t an engineer. He doesn’t have an engineering degree from an ABET certified school, no FE or PE license, nor does he understand basic engineering or design principles.

                  You can lick his boots and lie all you want, but Elon is a rich bitch trust fund baby who takes credit for the ideas of others and you defend him. It’s honestly sad, coming from a mechanical engineer, that you as someone who works in software development, would call him an engineer.

        • @LowleeKun@feddit.org
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          23 months ago

          I mean i am too poor and don’t need a car but i could see myself buying a tesla once elon really is gone and the other two factors change for me.

      • @InternetUser2012@lemmy.today
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        23 months ago

        If he sells it all, I’ll buy a Tesla the next day. Until then, dinosaur bones for me. Unless an economical and very powerful aftermarket swap parts become readily available.

      • @tacosplease@lemmy.world
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        23 months ago

        Having worked with Tesla I can tell you not all their problems would leave with Elon, but it would certainly be a great start.

  • @Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world
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    303 months ago

    Whats interesting is the NRA spent billions in TV propaganda running a news channel and that venture ended up bankrupting the whole organization. It looks like musk is falling in the same trap