By Adam 
A sign outside the Twitter headquarters is adorned with the Twitter logo. … [+]
It is a warning sign if the company’s valuation drops dramatically. Check that — it’s a sign the company is Cratering.
Fidelity recently marked down Twitter’s value to just 33% of the original price. This makes me wonder if Elon Musk purchased a lemon from a garage-sale run by an eighth grader. In other words, it wasn’t a wise purchase.
According to Reuters: “Fidelity’s…stake in Twitter, which now exists under Musk’s X Holdings Corp, was valued at nearly $6.55 million as of April 28, compared with $7.8 million as of Jan. 31 and almost $8.63 million at November-end.”
Consider the consequences. Musk purchased the social media giant for $44B back in October. According to Fidelity, if the value of Twitter has fallen by a third from its original price (about 15B), then it is rapidly losing money.
Bad decisions are to blame for the ongoing collapse. Let’s start with the blue check. I recently signed up for the check again because I wanted to do some longer posts, but it’s more of an experiment than anything. I’m curious about the dumpster fire. If you pay $8 for longer posts, extra authentication and…a few other things that don’t matter that much to me, does it seem like the $8 per month is worth it?
Not really. I’m not experiencing an incredible return on my investment so far. According to other people, I’m not the only one who feels this way. The vanity symbol is nice, but I don’t want to pay this much for it. I’m not sure what can save Twitter at this point, but certainly there must be some features Musk could add that make it more compelling.
A second problem of grave importance? Technology is questionable. It’s taking giant steps backwards, as we all witnessed when Ron DeSantis announced his presidential run on Twitter Spaces and crashed the servers before most of us could even login. The best thing to do is keep all your engineers on board.
Attracting an alt-right crowd, making wild claims about conspiracy theories, not bothering to add any useful features people care about, changing your name to create even more confusion, watching on the sidelines as TikTok assumes world domination — that’s one way to crash and burn.
Twitter has remained my favorite application, despite the outrage. I like micro-blogging; I’m not drawn to short videos. I’d rather share links than have a long conversation. Still, I have some hope for a turnaround. Maybe under the leadership of a new CEO. Let’s be honest, I’m not sure how it could get worse. Musk is a master at rebounding.
There’s no silver lining in all of this so far. Twitter’s dark clouds are a clear sign of a company in total and complete chaos.
Through all of the missteps, I’m still using it. I still think there’s a way to save the company and offer real value.
I don’t think the current owner knows how to rescue the firm, but maybe a savior will emerge. It’s not too late to hope.
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Digital Editor