Twitter’s revenue is down 40% year-over-year (YoY) according to a recent tweet from Platformer Reporter, Zoë Schiffer.
Making matters worse for the social media platform and its new multi-billionaire owner Elon Musk, the first major interest interest payment on the company is due at the end of January.
According to three anonymous sources who spoke to the Financial Times, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO holds roughly US$13 billion worth of debt that he used to fund the takeover of Twitter. The sources add that the interest payments alone, which will begin at the end of this month, will add up to roughly US$1.5 billion annually.
From this we can assume that the monthly interest payments will be somewhere around the US$75 million mark.
Musk has an interesting choice to make here, and the way that he chooses to deal with the upcoming interest payments will give us plenty of insight into his future leadership. So far, Musks’ command of Twitter has been pockmarked by chaotic comments and erratic decision making.
“This company is like you’re in a plane that is headed towards the ground at high speed with the engines on fire and the controls don’t work,” Musk said in a Twitter Space chat last month. “That’s the reason for why my actions that may seem sometimes spurious.”
Twitter sells furniture and office supplies to increase revenue
While the the 40% revenue figure is yet to be officially confirmed by Twitter or Elon Musk, the company’s recent moves to sell furniture and office supplies show that its scraping the bottom of barrel in attempt to put itself back in the black.
Twitter is currently auctioning off everything from a giant neon sign of the blue bird itself all the way down to some expensive Herman Miller chairs. If you don’t have a spare US$20,000 sitting around for a blue bird statue, there’s still a long list of more reasonably priced tables and chairs.
Musk tweeted in November that the company had seen a “massive drop in revenue” in the wake of a several major advertisers choosing to break ties with the platform.
He has also warned Twitter could go bankrupt. These statements are especially concerning, especially when considering news that Twitter has allegedly failed to pay rent for its offices around the world, including their San Francisco headquarters, where their landlord is suing for non-payment.
Since his takeover in October Musk Musk has laid off approximately half of the company’s 7,500 staff.
