Robert ReichWhen Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, he clearly didn’t know that the key assets he was buying lay in Twitter’s 7,500 workers’ heads. Now he’s paying the price. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/musks-humongous-mistake#details
Dionysus@rbreich has destroying it for political reasons. So it's harder for liberals to coordinate.
Kevin Kolk@Dionysianmasks @rbreich Jokes on him. We liberals already don’t coordinate.☺️
'I am not a member of any organized political party — I am a Democrat. ' - Will Rogers.
Roxxx@Dionysianmasks @Siberian @rbreich this is so on point. One thing Republicans have is they will unite and stand behind each other. Libs will fight over the dumbest things and exclude over simple ideological differences.
@roxxxykonton @Siberian @rbreich conservatives think if they can fight their inherent nature of individualism and hang together long enough, they can go back to hanging black people.
David Reinertson@roxxxykonton @Dionysianmasks @Siberian @rbreich Freedom of the Press does mean a rich person can buy and own that free Press. So freedom of speech requires alternatives. That’s why net neutrality and 230 are both so important.
Calm, considering@roxxxykonton @Dionysianmasks @Siberian @rbreich same in the UK. The Right always seems to toe the line and present a unified front when it matters.
Of course, having rich donors and most of the press on their side helps.
Of course, having rich donors and most of the press on their side helps.
シュガ人@Dionysianmasks @rbreich We're kinda on a place which renders that moot lol
Jose Garcia@rbreich Twitters biggest asset was the good will of its user base.
The Big R
Alexandria Brangwin@rbreich Even more ridiculous when you know he didn't have 44 billion.....even selling his tesla stock twice over.
So that means his benefactors wanted him to make something good out of it....and he's in deep trouble.....or they paid him to ruin it......which may put us in deep trouble.
So that means his benefactors wanted him to make something good out of it....and he's in deep trouble.....or they paid him to ruin it......which may put us in deep trouble.
Inorganic Fella@AlexBrangwin @rbreich I think the destruction of twitter was the goal. $44bn is nothing to those people if they get to destroy democratic communication.
@InorganicFella @rbreich Wonder how they billed it to musk.
His priority is himself & his pet projects...wouldn't care if the world collapsed tomorrow as long as one of his brands got all the goodness.
His priority is himself & his pet projects...wouldn't care if the world collapsed tomorrow as long as one of his brands got all the goodness.
@AlexBrangwin @rbreich I think for him it is as simple as he gets the last laugh. He gets to show everyone who is boss now.
John Garver@rbreich Another key asset are (...were) the users, and they too are melting away (#Mastodon). Loss everywhere.
⚡️ axeshun ⚡️ 
@rbreich if it were a tangible product, I believe he would likely flourish. Unfortunately, he didn't tale into account that people would have to embrace his unbearable personality disorders.
LIamMcBaen
Peter Edwards@rbreich he understands little. You are right.
J Donavan@rbreich the great thing about this is he’s been exposed as a conman.
Zaku@rbreich His past successes largely depend on government subsidies. I think he’s doing the same for twitter by branding twitter a “public” town square. Once someone from GOP gets elected with his help, his investment will pay back.
🌊 Jumpsuits For Trumpsuits 🌊@rbreich We just watched Sam Bankman-Fried go from a $16 billion net worth to a negative one in a few days.
I see no reason why Elon can't accomplish this as well.
He's well on his way.
ScottMann@rbreich I will maintain, until the end of my life, that because of Musk's self-admitted issue, he never should have purchased a social media network. Your article, makes similar points.If Musk was wise? He would have backed off, seen how it all worked, probably hired someone knowledgeable, in the human element, as I call them, of Twitter. He's devalued it, he'll probably crash it. I don't know if he's hoping for a bailout, governmental, or otherwise. He clearly does not deserve one!
Mike Leech@rbreich Yes ! Someone understands this. There may have been too many employess but the callous way he just dumped them and then said they needed to dedicate themselves to Twitter 2.0 etc. I hope they take their talent elsewhere and it bites him in the ass.
Óli Gneisti (English)During a takeover bid like this, how often do 98% of shareholders agree to a deal. Doesn't it imply that the price was well over the value they saw in the company?
Sofia_Freja@rbreich beyond a select few of his Longtermism friends it doesn't appear that he has ever viewed individuals in his organizations assets.
That type of leadership only works if leaders continue to deliver high rates of rewards ($, stock, etc). Once those carrots disappear mistreating employees will destroy an organization.
IAmDavid@rbreich excellent punchy analysis which makes perfect sense #twittermigration
Ricardo G. Sousa 🇵🇹🇪🇺A well-thought-out article by @rbreich in a few sentences about the impact of workers in the closely linked modern socioeconomic.
We are already seeing a significant mass migration of advertisers out from the platform. Twitter, on the other hand, is primarily dependent on its user base/graph-network, which is strongly associated with core users/nodes. In the end, an exodus of those users will signal the beginning of Twitter's demise. #twittermigration
SheriIt seems intuitive to me. It's a large miscalculation for someone with genius.
Which always brings up this question for me, why not surround yourself with people that can provide wise counsel.
Then again if you have pocket change of 44 million what difference does it make? Or does it?
@rbreich this is something that musk planned with republicans, but eventually it’ll backfire….
Deb has moved! (see profile) 🇨🇦@rbreich it's beyond me how he could not know this. 🤦♀️🤷♀️🙎♀️
Jon Webb@rbreich I think it's more that he was used to thinking of himself as a savior in a startup culture of a traditional manufacturing company. Which Twitter, obviously, is not. You can't pause everything and shut down the factory. You have to keep stuff working day to day, which requires dedicated experienced engineers, as well as advertisers and users. All of which could go away in a few days.
LegalQuilts@rbreich oh no. This was the plan all along. His fee-fees were hurt so he was going to destroy it.
Nyke "Nate Trent" Young 🌹🪨
TJ800X@rbreich fundamentally humans are the means of production for a technology company. While the equivalent of top-level “finished goods” is a corporate product, much of the subsystems and components needn’t necessarily be corporate creations. There is a huge market failure in supplying these lower system components. The production of subsystems and libraries should economically benefit the skilled authors and maintainers.
Keith McGrath@rbreich It's really hard to understand how he didn't know that. It's seems he doesn't really understand the complexity of modern software systems
Kim Spence-Jones #FBPE@keithmcgrath Remember, this is a guy who thinks you can make a self-driving car using just video cameras, and that the technology is almost ready. He lives in a fantasy land!
@KimSJ I'm beginning to suspect you are right
chasfhudson@rbreich Excellent explanation of the way to view your labor force as a valuable assets, not only a cost.
Dread Pirate RobI think he's turning it into a fox-news type misinformation system.
The model works economically. I think you have to charge people for leveraging public opinion in their favour.
OldSalt@rbreich tribal knowledge of employees is a critical asset of any biz and especially in the case of Twitter. IMO the more a company relies upon its people to manage the service the more of an indicator it is that the service itself is unstable as ex-employees have stated. https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/18/1063467/former-twitter-employees-fear-the-platform-might-only-last-weeks/ Musk has not only disposed of that tribal knowledge but Twitter’s support infrastructure as well.
@rbreich This is what happens when you treat labor as a commodity rather than your most valuable resource.
Liz 🇺🇦@rbreich and with the users. WE are the product.
Move forward or die!@rbreich what if he is systematically dismantling the TWT team so as to gain full control for himself. The key asset from his point of view are the users themselves and the associated data trove. I’m betting his real goal is to mine that data, set up a AI bot farm and manipulate both financial markets and popular opinion. The former to help fund his Mars ambitions the later to keep government regulators from reeling him in. Eliminating the internal team makes this possible…
Jane SchmittEmployees are always the resources, especially in a high tech field, but in Twitter’s case the highly educated user base of professionals networking were also a resource. Unfortunately Musk has to a large extent driven them all away. What’s left? Pretty much just a hellscape of bile and hate. It’s very grim over there right now.
Alaric@rbreich @FalconRising it really is, I hardly recognise it at all!
Wonky@rbreich definitely.
All tech companies have a brain trust, and losing that is damaging at the very least.
All tech companies have a brain trust, and losing that is damaging at the very least.
MerrillC
AnnRichards@rbreich I believe it was purchased to purposely tank it.
Laundering money?
Dismantle the go to platform for grassroots groups on behalf of republicans? Or perhaps the saudis? The Russian government?
chasingfogg 
🧐🌎@rbreich back in the day, it was a big concern for any companies with software development (whether they viewed themselves as software companies or not) to move teams to a new state / location since not everyone would go. You move it, you break it. Understanding technology development doesn't seem to be one of his strengths
Grumble@rbreich Elon, Baron of Musk might have assumed when buying the bird manor that the serfs were included in the sale. Or at least that the serfs wouldn't all run away.
Labor markets - what even are they? How do they work?
@rbreich Not only that, but he’s probably ensured that no experienced developer with options will come work for him. He probably have a VERY hard time backfilling. Not to mention the fact that hiring technical staff can take months and requires technical staff for the interview process. (Which is a huge time sink in a good day)
John Ellis (THE John Ellis)@rbreich The other asset that drew advertisers - US. We leave and it's not Twitter. He thinks buying the name retains the value.
John Kemner@rbreich Has anyone done the math and I missed it? Those figures pencil out to $5.9M per employee. The ones remaining may have to be adjusted downward for morale losses.