About this episode
A little more than a year ago, Elon Musk made a hostile takeover bid to buy Twitter. Today on “Post Reports,” we look back at a chaotic year for the platform and ask what we can learn from Musk’s handling of the company as he appoints a new CEO. Read more: Twitter has been dramatically transformed under Musk, and few — even among some in the billionaire’s corner — say the changes have been for the better . In recent weeks, government agencies, news organizations and powerful social media influencers have questioned the usefulness of the platform, with some major players publicly abandoning their accounts or telling users that they can’t rely on it for urgent information. Advertisers have fled in droves over Musk’s policy changes and erratic behavior on the site, causing advertising revenue to recently drop by as much as 75 percent, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive internal information. Rounds of layoffs have left Twitter operating with a skeleton staff of 1,500 — an 80 percent reduction — and the platform is so riddled with bugs and glitches that the site goes down for hours at a time. Meanwhile, the company’s valuation has cratered, Musk has said, to less than half the $44 billion he paid when he bought the company roughly six months ago. Along with culture changes, Musk has reinvented the platform in ways that have confused users, who once knew Twitter as a widely admired news aggregator. As Musk appoints a new CEO and steps down, we look back at how he’s managed the company, the changes he’s made to the platform and how his reputation has shifted because of all this.