HIGHLIGHTS

* Yaccarino started working at Twitter in early June as CEO
* Yaccarino was former ad chief at Comcast’s NBCUniversal
* Twitter has been criticized over lax content moderation

Twitter’s cash flow remains negative because of a nearly 50 percent drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load, Elon Musk said on Saturday, falling short of his expectation in March that Twitter could reach cash flow positive by June.

“Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” Musk said in a tweet replying to suggestions on recapitalization.

This is the latest sign that the aggressive cost-cutting measures since Musk acquired Twitter in October alone are not enough to get Twitter to cash flow positive, and suggests Twitter’s ad revenue may have not recovered as fast as Musk suggested in an interview in April with the BBC that most advertisers had returned to the site.

After laying off thousands of employees and cutting cloud service bills, Musk had said the company reduced its non-debt expenditures to $1.5 billion from a projected $4.5 billion in 2023.
Twitter also faces annual interest payments of about $1.5 billion as a result of the debt it took on in the $44 billion deal that turned the company private.

It is unclear what time frame Musk was referring to by the 50% drop in ad revenue. He has said Twitter was on track to post $3 billion in revenue in 2023, down from $5.1 billion in 2021.

Twitter has been criticized over lax content moderation, followed by an exodus of many advertisers who did not want their ads appearing next to inappropriate content.

Musk’s hiring of Linda Yaccarino, former ad chief at Comcast’s NBCUniversal as CEO, signaled that ad sales are a priority for Twitter even as it works to increase subscription revenue.

Yaccarino started working at Twitter in early June and has told investors Twitter plans to focus on video, creator and commerce partnerships and is in early talks with political and entertainment figures, payments services, and news and media publishers.

On Thursday, Twitter said that select content creators will be eligible to get a part of the ad revenue the company earns in an attempt to draw more content creators tothe site.

Twitter is still spending more money than it’s making, according to Elon Musk. In the early hours of Saturday morning, the billionaire tweeted the company was suffering from an ongoing negative cash flow issue due to an approximately 50 percent drop in advertising revenue and heavy debt burden.

“Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” Musk said.

The admission comes in the same week that Twitter’s ad-revenue sharing program began paying out some creators, including a handful of far-right influencers.

On Friday, Musk also claimed the social network could see “all-time high device user seconds usage” sometime this week. He also previously said almost all the advertisers who had left the platform following his takeover in October had “either come back” or “said they will come back.”

According to an estimate research firm Sensor Tower shared with Bloomberg, advertising spending fell by 89 percent to $7.6 million during a two-month period earlier this year. Per Reuters, Twitter has annual interest payments of about $1.5 billion due to the debt the company took on when Musk took it private for $44 billion.

This is the latest sign the aggressive cost-cutting measures Musk has undertaken in the last year have not been enough to put the company on solid financial footing.

It also suggests the company’s newly appointed CEO, Linda Yaccarino, has her work cut out for her as she works to rebuild Twitter’s advertising base.

Twitter ad revenue is falling due to many reasons

At the same time, Bloomberg claims that Twitter’s advertising business fell by 89% in the last two months. Also, Reuters reports that Twitter pays $1.5 billion annually to repay the company’s loan realized just after Musk took it over.

Twitter ad revenue and the overall situation in the company obviously forced Musk to sharply cut costs. We have also seen that in some cases he has gone too far. A bizarre example happened not so long ago when Twitter stopped paying rent for its business offices.
How will the Twitter saga end, remains to be seen. Competition in the form of Zuckerberg’s Threads is doing pretty well at this point. What is more intriguing, it has achieved a major milestone even without EU users, due to regulation issues.

Elon Musk added that “positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else”. Meanwhile, newly appointed CEO Linda Yaccarinao said that Twitter is working hard to establish a new base of advertisers, in order to overcome these negative trends.

Faqs

1) Twitter’s Cash Flow Still Negative As Ad Revenue Drops 50%, Says Elon Musk.Details?

Ans) Twitter’s cash flow remains negative because of a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load, Elon Musk said on Saturday, falling short of his expectation in March that Twitter could reach cash flow positive by June.
“Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” Mr Musk said in a tweet replying to suggestions on recapitalization.

This is the latest sign that the aggressive cost-cutting measures since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October alone are not enough to get Twitter to cash flow positive, and suggests Twitter’s ad revenue may have not recovered as fast as Mr Musk suggested in an interview in April with the BBC that most advertisers had returned to the site.

After laying off thousands of employees and cutting cloud service bills, Mr Musk had said the company reduced its non-debt expenditures to $1.5 billion from a projected $4.5 billion in 2023. Twitter also faces annual interest payments of about $1.5 billion as a result of the debt it took on in the $44 billion deal that turned the company private.

It is unclear what time frame Elon Musk was referring to by the 50% drop in ad revenue. He has said Twitter was on track to post $3 billion in revenue in 2023, down from $5.1 billion in 2021.

Twitter has been criticized over lax content moderation, followed by an exodus of many advertisers who did not want their ads appearing next to inappropriate content.
Musk’s hiring of Linda Yaccarino, former ad chief at Comcast’s NBCUniversal as CEO, signaled that ad sales are a priority for Twitter even as it works to increase subscription revenue.

2) What’s the latest update from Twitter for context creators ?

Ans) Yaccarino started working at Twitter in early June and has told investors Twitter plans to focus on video, creator and commerce partnerships and is in early talks with political and entertainment figures, payments services, and news and media publishers.
On Thursday, Twitter said that select content creators will be eligible to get a part of the ad revenue the company earns in an attempt to draw more content creators to the site.

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