Twitter ‘trending to break-even’ claims Elon Musk after bankruptcy threat

Billionaire who took over social network last year says last three months were ‘extremely tough’

Elon Musk gets into a car after leaving the Phillip Burton Federal Building on Friday in San Francisco, California. The following day he was found not liable in a securities fraud case over a tweet that said he had lined up funding to take electric car company Tesla private. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Elon Musk gets into a car after leaving the Phillip Burton Federal Building on Friday in San Francisco, California. The following day he was found not liable in a securities fraud case over a tweet that said he had lined up funding to take electric car company Tesla private. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty

Elon Musk says Twitter Inc is “trending to break-even” after he had to save it from bankruptcy.

The billionaire said in a tweet on Sunday that the last three months were “extremely tough”. He had to juggle the rescue of the social-media platform with responsibilities at two other companies he oversees – Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp, or SpaceX.

“Wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone,” Mr Musk said.

Daily user count and user minutes are “still strong”, Mr Musk said in a follow-up tweet.

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Mr Musk last year completed a $44 billion deal for Twitter that gave him control of the company for $54.20 a share. Also last year, he became the first person in history to have $200 billion erased from his fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.

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Since the takeover, Mr Musk has openly and frequently talked about the possibility of bankruptcy for Twitter. Still, the platform made its first interest payment on the $12.5 billion in debt that the new owner used to take it private last year, bolstering confidence in his ability to avert bankruptcy in the near term. – Bloomberg