It is becoming a very expensive game for Elon Musk as Twitter (yes, X) continues to bleed value: “Fidelity Investments, a major asset management firm, that helped Musk acquire X, has significantly reduced the value of its stake, cutting the platform’s valuation to just $9.4 billion, a steep drop from Elon Musk’s initial $44 billion purchase price.”
Musk is a brilliant businessman but he needs to understand that in any business which runs on aggregation, there are catalysts which must play a role to keep the money-equilibrium in phase. He wants to offer a place for freedom of speech. That is noble but the advertisers might have voted otherwise.
One of the most difficult things in business is to be popular and not being valued. Yes, you can grow your user base but no one thinks you are good enough to ship any funds to you. Simply, it comes down to who are those users?
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The only time I received a violation notice on Linkedin was the day the queen of the English people died. I had argued that the world must not forget that under her leadership, Nigeria caused super-genocide where Igbo sons and daughters perished, not just in Nigeria, but also in Britain. Of course, there was no UN anywhere to feed people as is done in Gaza right now.
My mother’s brother, Augustine, a brilliant engineer whose village contributed money to train, was among many Igbo sons who mysteriously died in Britain during the war. I added that as a way of giving the full picture of the queen and her records. Many Nigerians were offended because I was taking “Nigeria backward” (they were more offended by their feelings and not to the pain of my family). But it all ended well as LinkedIn later sent a note that the “violation notice” was an error.
Imagine if those Nigerians are advertisers with $billions to spend. That is what Elon Musk’s X is going through. And Musk has no chance because in the Igbo Nation, if the village cooks for you, you are done; the village of advertisers are cooking for X, and unless it dances to their tune, it is a lost mission.
Fidelity Slashes X’s Valuation by 78.7%, Now Worth $9.4 Billion
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