Elon Musk has been successful with his businesses so far, but somehow, Twitter just isn't clicking. In an effort to save a $44 billion purchase, the tech billionaire assigned a new CEO. So far, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino has been making the right decisions, starting with the company's Google Cloud contract.
Google Bill Paid
Previous reports say that Twitter refused to pay its Google Cloud bill. This could be part of Musk's cost-cutting effort to keep the company profitable, but to the public eye, it's a recipe for disaster. The contract has been active since 2018.
Without it, important tools that help Twitter rub smoothly will go offline, which goes without saying, could make matters worse. The company attempted to transfer its servers off Google Cloud, which was reportedly "running behind schedule," according to The Verge.
Twitter under Yacacarino finally decided to pay off the bill, probably anticipating the issues at hand if the deal fell through. The CEO helped "get the relationship back on track" and might even extend its partnership to other deals like advertising and Twitter's API behind a paywall.
It's understandable why the tech billionaire saw the Google Cloud contract as one of the bills he has to cut off, given that it costs the company around $200 million to $300 million a year. Musk was reportedly hard to contact regarding the unpaid bills.
If the company failed to pay the bill by June 30th, which is the contract's renewal date, functions like moderation can be greatly affected. Twitter has already experienced issues with its lack of moderation in the past, with some instances even causing advertisers to depart from the platform.
Other than spam, the social media site will also fail to take down posts that violate Twitter rules, including the use of copyrighted materials and the use of derogatory language. There was a case where it took Twitter hours to take down a full movie off the platform.
Twitter's Financial Status
Linda Yaccarino had just been appointed as CEO of the company, so it's still a little too early to tell whether she can manage to bring Twitter back to its former state. Musk has left a huge mess to clean up for the new CEO, which means there's a lot of work to do.
For one, the mass layoffs have made it difficult for the remaining employees to do their jobs efficiently, given that a small number of workers are carrying out all the work of what used to be a huge workforce. Around 80% were laid off when the Tesla CEO took over.
Musk even admitted that the company was bleeding money as it lost $4 million a day. Latest reports claim that Twitter is now only a third in value of what Musk paid for it, which is far from his goal of making the company worth $250 billion someday.
It doesn't help that Twitter has been facing lawsuits for not paying rent for its offices and headquarters. According to Tech, Musk even has a debt of $200,000 for the private flights he took during the first week of the acquisition.
Related: Twitter Under Elon Musk Refuses to Renew Its Google Contract
