As a former restructuring and bankruptcy advisor at Lazard, I can recognize the signs of a company in distress. And it’s a pretty obvious tell that there’s financial trouble brewing when a company stops paying its bills.

We can only hope 🙏

  • ericjmorey@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Elon Musk could lose 99% of his wealth this month, then 99% of his remaining wealth next month and still be better off financially than 99.99% of everyone. He’s not ever going to experience financial distress.

    • swnt@feddit.deEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Well, yes and no.

      The issue is, that rich people take on lots of debt with their assets as collatoral (e.g. Musk taking a loan from the Saudis for buying twitter). If Musks collatoral suddenly vanishes (s.g. Tesla breaks down within a month), then the massive 10 billion USD debt will still be there. And then he’ll be very very much in negative wealth.

      • ericjmorey@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        Your assumption is personal or personally guaranteed debt, but the loan was likely (based on my reading the term sheets leaked) to the new entity that was going to purchase/merge with the pre-existing Twitter. That potential negative net worth wouldn’t be tied to Musk but the entity we now know as Twitter. Musk would not be in financial distress.

        Edit: I may have misread what you wrote. The value of Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX could go negative and Musk would still be wealthier than 99.99% of the world because personal guarantees are unlikely to be attached to that debt.

  • Banzai51@midwest.socialEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    I think Musk has to worry less about losing Twitter than getting booted from Tesla. There have already been a ton of shareholder grumbling about him being distracted and Tesla being tied financially to the Twitter debacle.

  • cykablyatbot@lemmy.fmhy.mlEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Sure. Just like he was with Tesla, which was never going to succeed, or if it did, be a niche market. Or like his even crazier idea to start a private orbital launch company.
    Like one prominent investor said about Elon in general, I wouldn’t invest in Twitter but I wouldn’t bet against Elon either.

    • Hypx@kbin.social
      0·
      2 years ago

      Stop worshipping a right-wing asshole. He just steals ideas or runs outright scams.

      • cykablyatbot@lemmy.fmhy.ml
        0·
        2 years ago

        “Stealing ideas” isn’t a thing. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Prototypes are much rarer. The even more difficult part is taking things and mass manufacturing them in a way that people can afford and also want.
        There’s no scam to manufacturing a million cars a year. Nor is SpaceX remotely a scam.
        No matter how much of a dick he is on Twitter it doesn’t mean he is stupid and can’t build and organize companies that work really, really well. Nothing about doing that depends on someone being a “good” or likeable person.
        I don’t worship anyone. But I don’t make up reality just to fit with my beliefs about how things should be according to my ideology.

        • Hypx@kbin.social
          0·
          2 years ago

          He didn’t found Tesla. He truly did steal the company. SpaceX is ran in such a way where he is basically isolated and prevented from doing anything of consequence. Twitter is the first time we actually get to see his real level of ability.

          • cykablyatbot@lemmy.fmhy.ml
            1·
            2 years ago

            You mean invested in it. Then took over as CEO when the board voted the former CEO out because he was spending everything they had without getting close to producing a car they could manufacture.
            Telsa never produced any cars until Musk was running it.
            The continued success under his leadership for the ramp ups for the Model S and and full on ramp up to mass manufacturing the Model 3 kind of demonstrates that. To say nothing of Spacex.
            \What did Eberhard do after Tesla again?
            Saying he did nothing of consequence at SpaceX would be claiming that everyone who worked with him there is flat out lying. People don’t talk smack about their former employers even if they don’t like them or think they are idiots… But they don’t make an effort to praise their abilities in that case either. I’m thinking it is more likely that you aren’t exactly in a position to know more than they do.

            Twitter would be the only mature company with any previous success that he actually ever bought into and the only one he did not build from the ground up. Eberhard building a crap foundation that needed a lot of rebuilding doesn’t count.

            I know you don’t want any of this to be true because he’s a dick. But the world isn’t a Hollywood movie where the bad guys get what you think they deserve and only the nice people are brilliant.

            • Hypx@kbin.social
              0·
              2 years ago

              Then you are free to indulge in your fantasies. The rest of us can just look at Twitter and see what it really implies.

              • cykablyatbot@lemmy.fmhy.ml
                1·
                2 years ago

                How are you able to see what’s going on at Twitter? Do you work there in a position where you have a decent overview of the company?
                And sure, he might totally run Twitter into the ground. Like I said, I wouldn’t put money into the company. But it’s about where every other company he has run was, so I wouldn’t bet against his success there either.
                The idea that if he fails at making Twitter a success means he is an idiot and Tesla and SpaceX are a fluke are delusional though.