We asked some PR professionals what they think Musk is doing wrong, right and here’s what they had to say. 

Elon Musk’s PR Might Be A Bitter Pill But Is An Acquired Taste 

Elon Musk’s net worth has bolstered him up to the record of being the richest man in the world. Musk’s success story is purely attributable to the fame he achieved as SpaceX and Tesla’s CEO. Musk always advocated for the unique innovations that science brought to him from both his private space company and electric automobile maker. 

Until a very elon–gating public jab in October 2022, the achievements of Musk celebrated him as a visionary. Although Musk’s spontaneous decisions have majorly backfired on him, if he could be more transparent in also sharing the context of his strategy, he may not be as vilified as he is. After all, Elon Musk is a shrewd businessman. What affects his image, affects his brand’s market values as well. So what went wrong, right after Musk bought a certain social media platform and Twitter changed to X?  

After Elon Musk took over Twitter late last year, the existing issues of the social media platform became more pronounced. Musk reinstated suspended accounts for ‘hate speech’, fired more than thousands of Twitter employees, eliminated ‘blue ticks’ for verified accounts, alienated top advertisers, and Twitter changed to X, while also partaking in threatening to sue dozens of others. Amongst them, Musk found someone other than himself to blame for X’s woes – the Anti-Defamation League, which has been placed under a lawsuit threat as well. 

So what do PR professionals have to say?

PR Reacts: Elon Musk’s Success Story

Sarah Johnson of National Business Capital had a quite refreshing take on Musk’s controversial stature. Johnson believes that Musk is terrific for doing something that most CEOs should learn to do – not being pressured by the naysayers and developing a thick skin to criticism.

Johnson implied that Musk was definitely doing something right to have always been spoken about, either in a positive light or not. Musk has championed not particularly caring of what others think of him and that has worked tremendously on his reputation. 

Although some may not laud his brusque style of directing, Johnson says that Musk has always been transparent about his intentions with Twitter – monetizing the site. Twitter changed to X and the outrage was imminent. But as Elon Musk, the one incredible thing about his PR strategy is on how he interacts with his audience. None of the CEOs have not alienated its site’s users. Even though he calls the shots, Musk has found his fame calling in letting his users decide on what he should do. 

Johnson says that as far as PR could go, Musk’s communication style has beckoned the interest of why people can’t stop talking about him, be it backlash or praise. It humanizes his brand and fosters loyalty amongst customers. 

Elon Musk Harnesses A Nuance To His PR Image

Like most nuanced, if Candice D’Angelo of The Agency East had to sum up Elon Musk’s PR in one word, it would be ‘winning’. 

As a public figure, much of the communication is transparent but not all leaders are meant to capture everyone’s hearts. Musk has taken every criticism thrown at him in strides to do what he wishes to do. It may seem exasperating but how else did Tesla sales boom or SpaceX be celebrated as Elon Musk’s success story? – Musk’s persona lingers curiosity. 

“Because of his transparency and candor, Musk ruffles more feathers than not but in my opinion, love him or hate him, he has captivated us all.”

Zachary Weiner of Emerging Insider talks about how in the age of social media, Musk’s humor and casual tone have made him relatable to people, which is seldom found among eminent people. Weiner introduces the aspect of how Musk is consistent in aligning his personal brand with the vision of innovation of his companies as well. 

While Musk is notorious for his impulsive tweets and unfiltered comments, he has paid the price for it through lawsuits and controversies. But what makes Elon Musk’s net worth? We believe it is the rawness evident in Musk’s contradictions. He’s just like the common folk. And that is a rarity.

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The recent developments at SpaceX with the permissible orbital launch of Starship have exhilarated people who are curious about Musk’s dream of building life on Mars. 

And yet again, Musk’s ever-growing popularity is in the perpetual echelon of the limelight as tidings indicate that social media microblogging site Twitter, is no longer an independent company but merged with Musk’s other firm called X Corp, according to a court filing in California. Eagle-eyed sources caught the new name on a lawsuit document filed by activist Laura Loomer who is suing Twitter and former founder Jack Dorsey for flouting laws after her account was taken down in 2019.

“Twitter Inc. has merged into X Corp. and no longer exists. X Corp is a privately held corporation under its parent X Holdings Corp. No publicly traded corporation owns 10 percent or more of X Corp’s or X Holding’s stock ”

While Twitter’s new legal status now doesn’t need to publicly report changes like the name updates to the SEC, even after the Twitter and X Corp merger, the platform will remain functional as a social media site. 

The Reason Behind Twitter-X Corp Merger: Everything App

Other recent developments at Twitter included its recent logo tryst with cryptocurrency DogeCoin, which became an unending pit of trolls and memes albeit Elon Musk started it. After restoring the blue birdie logo to Twitter, Dogecoin once again plummeted. 

On the threshold of a ginormous controversy, when Musk was purchasing Twitter for a staggering sum of $44 billion last year, he had betokened of this acquisition being an ‘accelerant’ to his impassioned pet project of creating “X, the everything app”. The proposed app covets the myriad of services of China’s WeChat, with the name reminiscent of Musk’s former financial services startup X.com which was renamed to PayPal. 

In the past, Musk has lauded Chinese giant Tencent’s WeChat, an almost super-app with 1 billion users, which supports messaging, ridesharing, payments, food delivery and other utilities. Whilst Musk remains allured to the unique aspects of WeChat, its dominance could be fixated on China, making it quite impossible to replicate outside the populous country. 

X

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 11, 2023

Musk’s one-letter tweet attracted more than 43 million views within hours.

The mogul’s move to merge Twitter and X Corp seems a quite deliberate step in the direction of the ‘X: the everything app’, displaying Musk’s well-played vertical integration skills. But, with Twitter already being riddled with a slimming crew of people working to revitalize revenues with the Twitter Blue subscription, the proposed ‘X, everything app’ seems like all of the innumerable non-follow-ups of Elon Musk. 

How Elon Musk’s Twitter Turned X Corp May Never Become The Everything App

With more than 134.4 million followers on Twitter, Musk’s time at the helm of its C-suite has been more tumultuous than the fate of the latest turbulent tech stocks. 

Ever since Musk took over Twitter, several advertisers withdrew from the platform, plunging Twitter’s revenue and adjusted earnings by 40 percent. Industry analysts cited concerns for Twitter’s operations when Musk fired more than half of the company’s employees. The Tesla CEO has been accused of manipulating Twitter’s algorithm to gain traction for his own tweets. 

WeChat’s Edge Over Everything App

The West has long celebrated WeChat as one of the greatest inventions of China. 

The virtual success of Tencent-owned messenger WeChat in the past decade is owed to its plethora of features that people love such as reading news, booking appointments, paying taxes and galore. 

The social networking king of China, Tencent, has helped the messaging app thrive in the country. WeChat’s role as the ubiquitous messenger with over 1.3 billion users became omnipotent over time. Its core function is being a social messaging app, fundamentally different from the social media platform Twitter. WeChat’s internal ecosystem is hard to duplicate in the United States with the stronghold popularity of tech businesses like Amazon, Uber, and Facebook. 

While it seems unlikely for people to accept Musk’s intentions for the Twitter X Corp merger, it is evident that with ‘Everything app’, he will be setting himself up against unparalleled tech giants of the US.

On a final note, Robert Downey Jr had tuned to Musk’s personality for his role as Tony Stark in the Marvel Universe by the virtue of Musk’s embrace and desire to push the limits of technology. But is it possible that Musk is living life nothing less than a real-life Marvel superhero and not considering himself just analogous to the character?  

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Musk’s SpaceX, an incredulous spacecraft manufacturing company is distinctively known as a champion of integration – where rockets and other space-related tech is built from recycled parts, reducing wastages to increase affordability.   

SpaceX has managed to put Starlink into orbit, a massive constellation of low-altitude satellites which connects underserved areas of the world to the internet. 

Starlink and the recently launched Starship, are less of an opportunity for being notches up into SpaceX’s portfolio and more of the stepping stones and central pillars aligned to Musk’s space exploration’s ultimate dream – going to Mars. 

The tech titan has always made no secret of his dream to make human colonies on the Red Planet by 2050, envisioning the day when the world will witness his triumph of landing a rocket on the Martian surface successfully. 

“A spacefaring civilization is all about believing in the future, thinking it will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”
– Elon Musk

SpaceX Starship Launch Progress

One of SpaceX’s most ambitious projects to fuel the dream of Mars is launching Starship – a completely reusable and repurposable rocket transportation system that takes people and goods to Earth’s orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. In the last two years, SpaceX has unfortunately delayed its starship launch innumerable times, owing to pending licensing requisites from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 

Just weeks after firing all other engines to test the Starship launch vehicle, Musk’s latest tweets display the decision of gearing up to conduct the maiden orbital flight of the “Starship Super Heavy Rocket” as early as this week. 

The FAA also posted a notice for SpaceX’s Starship launch date buffer window for its orbital flight between April 10 – April 12, 2023, with backup dates listed as April 18 through 21. The timing frame for all dates is between 8:00 – 11:05 AM Eastern time. 

Starship fully stacked at Starbase. Team is working towards a launch rehearsal next week followed by Starship’s first integrated flight test ~week later pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/9VbJLppswp

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 6, 2023

This test mission marks the first launch of the fully-stacked Starship rocket system which is SpaceX’s 394-ft tall rocket sitting on top of a ‘super heavy’ first-stage booster consisting of 33 rocket engines. Starship’s Super Heavy booster is expected to be rocketed up from SpaceX’s Starbase facilities in Boca Chica, Texas and deploy the Starship second stage into space to complete its maiden orbital before reentering Earth and splashing miles off the coast of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. 

The aerospace company had fully integrated Starship with the booster and filled its fuel tank to full capacity. SpaceX’s Starship launch practice for its Super Heavy booster had survived a scintillating conclusion at the beginning of this year when as part of the Boca Chica SpaceX launch, the crew weighted the rocket with 10 million pounds of propellant. 

SpaceX And FAA: A Saga Of Launch Approvals

Although Starship’s Super Heavy booster sits on the pedestal of being powered as the world’s most powerful launch vehicle to ever be developed, the ability to hoist more than 100 metric tonnes to Earth’s orbit is privy to the FAA’s acquiescence. 

The Elon Musk-led company still seeks the launch license for its Texas-based first orbital Starship test flight from the FAA. 

Starship is ready for launch 🚀

Awaiting regulatory approval

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2023

In a statement to the press, the FAA clarified the notion of its planning notice having no influence over its licensing regulations. 

“The FAA has not made a license determination for the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy operation. FAA Command Center’s planning notice will not, and should not be interpreted as an indicator that a determination to issue a license has been made or is forthcoming.” 

Yet, reports from a source close to the issue affirm that SpaceX’s launch license for its Starship test could be granted by the FAA by today, but also cautioned that the licensing process is due to delays due to environmental compliance reviews. 

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Strategies for Successful Negotiations

Negotiation is a vital skill for any CEO, whether you are trying to close a deal with a new partner or resolve a conflict with a team member. As a CEO, your ability to negotiate effectively can make or break your business’s success. To help you improve your negotiation skills, we’ve gathered insights from some of the top CEOs known for their negotiation skills. Here are some strategies that can help you negotiate like a pro:

Prepare Thoroughly

According to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, the key to successful negotiations is preparation. Before entering into a negotiation, do your research, and gather as much information as possible about the other party’s goals, interests, and priorities. The more you know about the other party, the better you can craft your negotiation strategy to meet their needs and yours.

Focus on Win-Win

Jeff Bezos, former CEO of Amazon, advises that negotiations should always aim for a win-win outcome, where both parties come out ahead. Avoid focusing solely on your own interests, and instead, look for ways to create mutual benefits. This approach can build stronger partnerships and lead to long-term success.

Build Trust

Marillyn Hewson, former CEO of Lockheed Martin, stresses the importance of building trust in negotiations. Trust can be built by being honest and transparent about your goals and interests, actively listening to the other party’s concerns, and showing empathy and understanding.

Be Bold

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, is known for his bold negotiating style. He advises CEOs to be confident and unafraid to make bold offers or counteroffers. By taking risks, you can often achieve more significant rewards.

Know When to Walk Away

Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, advises that sometimes the best negotiation strategy is to walk away from the deal. If the other party’s demands are unreasonable or the deal doesn’t align with your business’s values, it may be better to cut your losses and move on.

Seek Common Ground

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, advises seeking common ground with the other party. By finding shared interests and goals, you can build a foundation for a successful negotiation. Cook also stresses the importance of being respectful and professional, even when negotiating with difficult or adversarial parties.

Negotiation is a critical skill for any CEO, and by following these strategies, you can improve your negotiating skills and achieve more successful outcomes. Remember to prepare thoroughly, focus on win-win outcomes, build trust, be bold, know when to walk away, and seek common ground. By mastering these skills, you can become a more effective negotiator and drive success for your business.

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Musk has been in the controversial limelight more than ever since he took over Twitter. Much to the ire of investors, Musk’s decisions are worrying his SpaceX and Tesla teams, because they claim it is leading his prized company Tesla to trials and tribulations, with shares suffering a grisly bloodbath. 

The first time Musk ranked with the distinction of the World’s Richest Man was in 2021, when he superseded Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. Due to his personal style of leadership, Elon Musk’s success has been compared to the likes of business magnates in US history, including Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, and Steve Jobs. This has also leered criticisms, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak taking a jab at Tesla’s unfulfilled promises.

Albeit Tesla’s stock rose 100 percent, attributed to the inverse quotient between cheaper car prices and rising demand since January 2023, an S&P report predicted the EV Carmaker’s decline due to strong competition. 

Here’s a brief outlook on one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk’s Net Worth, and how he became 2021 TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year by scaling the pinnacle of the business world. 

Elon Musk: A Brief History:

Hailing from the native South African community, Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, to Maye (Model and Nutritionist) and Errol Musk (Electromechanical engineer). After his parents’ divorce in 1980, Musk spent his childhood with his father, which he described as a period of ‘great adversity’. 

Musk began self-studying when programming piqued his interest at the age of nine and was enrolled in the private school, Waterkloof House Preparatory School where he was bullied awfully by his peers. Using technology as a means to escape the terrible circumstances, Musk gained interest in Commodore VIC-20, an inexpensive home computer. He was proficient enough to create Blastar – a Space Invaders-styled video game whose sale to PC Magazine earned him $500.7.

At the ripe age of 17, Musk obtained Canadian citizenship through his mother after emigrating to Ontario’s Queen’s University. He met his future wife, Justin Wilson during his college years with whom he went on to have five sons together, before separating in 2008. Additional accolades included a graduate degree in Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wharton School. Physics is imbued deeply in Musk’s framework.

“Boil things down to fundamental truths and just reason up from there.”

With Silicon Valley booming, Musk dropped out of his PhD in Applied Physics at Stanford University when he was just 24 years old, with entrepreneurial ideas in his head.

A Successful Business Telltale: Elon Musk’s Net Worth:

Elon Musk’s net worth and global fame are owed to two of his biggest and most technologically-advanced companies – SpaceX and Tesla, in addition to profitability and chaos from PayPal and Twitter. Prior to Tesla’s launch in 2004, Musk predicted that the future of the world was electric and was an early investor in numerous tech companies. At a point in history, Elon Musk had to borrow money for rent, with his substantial investments of millions in his companies. 

“$100 million in SpaceX, $70 million in Tesla, and $10 million in SolarCity, from the PayPal buyout profit.”

X.Com:

With his younger brother Kimbal and a staggering $15,000 in his pocket, Musk started a software company named Zip2, which helped newspapers build online city guides, in 1995. On being acquired for $341 million by Compaq Computer Corp in 1999, Musk created X.Com with the buyout money. X.Com was a fintech venture which merged with money transfer firm Confinity – resulting in the birth of PayPal. After Peter Thiel ousted him as CEO, eBay’s $1.5 billion acquisition of the company still landed favorably for Musk. His 11.7 percent stake in PayPal resulted in a buyout profit after tax, of about $180 million.

Tesla:

Following his passion for electric cars, Musk contributed $6.3 million as an early investor and began a team with engineer Martin Eberhard to run Tesla Motors. After Eberhard was ousted in 2007 as CEO, Musk assumed the role of the product architect and CEO, under which the world’s most valuable electric automobile maker, Tesla Inc flourished lavishly. Under Tesla’s electric nature, it maintains a robust rhythm in the solar energy sector by manufacturing rechargeable solar batteries under SolarCity. 

SpaceX:

With another belief for future dwellers on other planets, Musk used most of his PayPal buyout proceeds to fund a private space company, SpaceX – Space Exploration Technologies Corp, in 2002. Musk has taken this company to newer heights by scoring high-profile contracts with NASA and the U.S. Air Force to design space launch rockets and also revealed future plans of collaborating with NASA to send astronauts to Mars by 2025. 

Twitter:

Becoming Chief Twit has taken a toll – Musk admitted to burning out and being overworked over Twitter’s debacles and lack of management, leading to the effect of Tesla.In April 2022, Musk disclosed a 9.1 percent stake in the social media company, Twitter. Twitterati offered him a seat on the board, which he later declined. Musk then proposed to buy the company at $54.20 per share – $46.5 billion. After a tug-of-war between court lawsuits and discouragements from Tesla and SpaceX boards, Musk was free of the wrangling and took control of Twitter in October 2022. 

The market value of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter has made significant strides to Elon Musk’s net worth in addition to solar power manufacturing. Despite his fortune, it is alleged that Musk bears no income taxes. According to the Forbes Billionaire Index, Elon Musk’s Net Worth is $184.7 billion. 

Musk’s early interest in philosophy and science fiction has worked wonders for him in the business world. He promises to shape the technological future by disrupting industries over his notable interest in identifying industries crucial to humanity’s future, such as space exploration, renewable energy sources, and the internet. With all game-changers in play, despite bumps, PayPal, Tesla Inc, SpaceX, and SolarCity have earned him billions. 

The post The World’s Richest Men: Elon Musk’s Net Worth appeared first on Industry Leaders Magazine.

Starship of House SpaceX, the First of Its Kind, Flying High Above the Earth and Around the Moon, the Product of Human Engineering, the Deliverer of Possibilities, the Reusable, the Breaker of Molds.

A SpaceNews report mentions that SpaceX’s Gary Henry, senior advisor for national security space solutions, told a panel that the Starship was in good shape, following a static fire of 31 of its 33 engines.

In the last two years, the aerospace company has postponed a starship launch multiple times, pending licensing requirements from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). But this time, everything appears to be gearing towards March.

SpaceX Prepares to Let Starship Fly

Henry’s affirmation appears to be in line with CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter declaration from last month.

If remaining tests go well, we will attempt a Starship launch next month

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2023

“We had a successful hot fire, and that was really the last box to check,” Henry said at the Space Mobility conference in Orlando held in coordination with the US Space Force. “The vehicle is in good shape. The pad is in good shape.”

Elon Musk’s grand plans for Starship include travel to Mars and back. He envisions a reusable and expendable version of the spacecraft that will save costs and resources.

SpaceX’s plans for the Starship has it shooting for the moon and stars. In 2021, NASA and SpaceX signed a contract worth nearly $3 billion to use Starship to ferry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon.

NASA has plans to avail of this facility for its Artemis program – its mission to the moon. So, as the current US administration has promised to make this dream a reality, it is likely that the next astronauts to the moon will travel in SpaceX’s Starship.

Federal filings indicate that the Starship test flight will launch from the Starbase spaceport site in Boca Chica, Texas. Its rocket booster will perform a partial return and land in the Gulf of Mexico or return to Starbase and be caught by the launch tower while Starship will perform a targeted landing in the Pacific Ocean.

SpaceX is yet to officially announce a date for the Starship launch. But if successfully launched, it could bring in much more investment and lead SpaceX ahead of its rival’s like Amazon’s Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.

Will Starship Propel a Starlink IPO?

There have been rumors of a Starlink IPO ever since Elon Musk hinted at letting people have a piece of the low-orbit satellites.

Early this year, CNBC reported that SpaceX was looking to raise funds to the tune of $750 million at a valuation of $137 billion. According to Crunchbase data, the company has raised almost $10 billion till date and counts NASA, Bracket Capital, and the United States Space Force among its many investors. 

SpaceX has, in the past, launched multiple missions for NASA and even taken private citizens to space. One of the objectives of the company is to normalize space travel for paying customers and not just government-funded astronauts.

SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell has indicated that the company is making money and is in no hurry to take external investment. The company is however focused on improving its technological prowess and making advancements in space-related tech. 

As far back as two years ago, Elon Musk has hinted at being open to the prospect of a Starlink IPO. As of December 2022, the service exceeded one million subscribers. 

At least a few years before Starlink revenue is reasonably predictable. Going public sooner than that would be very painful. Will do my best to give long-term Tesla shareholders preference.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 24, 2021

SpaceX is determined to build a galaxy of Starlink satellites as it works on revolutionizing Internet access. Furthermore, SpaceX’s universal launches will cement its position as an aerospace powerhouse — the benefits of which could translate to a Starlink IPO. Getting a stake in a business that managed to craft reusable rockets and power the Internet from above the Earth is a tantalizing prospect for investors.

Although Musk has come under fire for his moves involving Twitter takeover and neglecting Tesla, there is no denying that the billionaire entrepreneur has led SpaceX to greater heights.

When functional and fully operative, Starship will carry the first of many dreams of space agencies and eager space travelers. It remains to be seen whether the March launch of this spacecraft will be successful or not, but if I were you, I would be betting on SpaceX for the win.

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In February 2021, CEO Elon Musk has tweeted that once the space company starts turning profits, he will take it public.

Once we can predict cash flow reasonably well, Starlink will IPO

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2021

It looks like the time is near. On February 12, SpaceX sent its 10th mission of the year – a Falcon 9 rocket that carried 55 Starlinks. And according to experts, a Starlink IPO is imminent as the company inches towards profitability.

The Starlink IPO: Are there enough profits?

Starlink consists of over 3,500 satellites in low Earth orbit that communicate with ground transceivers and provide Internet services across the world. SpaceX has plans to deploy 12,000 more and eventually have 42,000 in orbit. Last year, the company also increased its rates and left many prospective Starlink customers in the dark without information on when their connection will be up. 

The aerospace company has over one million subscribers as of December 2022 and recorded its first positive cash flow quarter last year. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also noted that the company is on track to turn a profit.

On February 8, at the Federal Aviation Administration’s annual Commercial Space Transportation conference in Washington DC, Shotwell revealed that the company “will make money.”

A positive cash flow means that the company is making more cash than its expenditure. It is key to gauging and planning a company’s long-term growth.

Last year, SpaceX generated $3.3 billion in revenue, out of which roughly $1 billion came from Starlink, according to Mo Islam, who previously worked with JP Morgan.

SpaceX valuation and Starlink’s Prospects

One of the most renowned companies in the world, SpaceX has partnered with NASA on multiple projects. It aims to revolutionize space travel and provide Internet access to the remotest corners of the globe. One of the projects in the works is the Starship. If successful it can be used to facilitate human travel between Mars and the moon, and also ferry massive amounts of cargo into space.

But the most popular SpaceX product is the Starlink satellite. Both retail and private investors want a piece of the pie but equity is limited as the company is private. All that could change with the Starlink IPO. For the public offering to become a reality, Starlink first needs to prove its mettle by bringing in the money.

While Shotwell did not provide additional details about the earnings, it is no secret that SpaceX is continuously working on expanding its Starlink offerings. At the conference, she admitted that as the main launch business is already profitable, they are not in any hurry to take in external investments.

In early January, CNBC reported that SpaceX had raised $750 million from venture capital investors at a $137 billion valuation. In 2022, the company had raised over $2 billion as eagle-eyed investors opened up their purses to fund the company’s space sojourns.

CEO Elon Musk has also been cautious about the Starlink IPO as he referenced history in a 2021 tweet. “Every new satellite constellation in history has gone bankrupt. We hope to be the first that does not,” stated the billionaire entrepreneur.

Musk has repeatedly admitted that he is aware of investor expectations when it comes to a public offering. In 2022, he mentioned a timeline of 2025 for the IPO, as he expects the company to grow sufficiently large by then.

His priority is to ensure smooth revenue and predictable growth before he turns to the public to invest in the company. SpaceX has so far made no comment on a prospective date or timeline for a Starlink IPO, despite admitting to its turning fortunes.

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After declaring himself “Chief Twit,” Elon Musk conducted mass layoffs, reportedly without following proper procedure. Even before the layoffs, Musk was sued by the Twitter board for trying to back out of the multi-billion-dollar deal. And now the blue birdie has become an albatross around the billionaire’s neck. It has affected people’s views on him as a self-proclaimed advocate of free speech, Tesla’s share prices, and even the functioning of the company in crisis.

Twitter lawsuits have now added to the company’s woes. From a social media site that was known for trending events to becoming a network that is always in the news, Twitter’s fall has been anything but graceful.

In this piece, let us take a look at the lawsuits bleeding the troubled site dry and why it is battling ill-repute.

Twitter Lawsuits Set to Bleed the Company

The first lawsuit started with Elon Musk making a $44 billion offer for the social media site. But later when he tried to back out of the deal, the Twitter board wasted no time in taking him to court. It was the start of an avalanche of lawsuits that is now threatening to suffocate the company.

Ex-employees Sue Twitter

Elon Musk’s first order of business after completing the Twitter deal was firing over half of all employees. He also asked the remaining staff to return to office. As expected, this did not go down well with most and some former employees took Twitter to court over wrong termination.

The lawsuit alleges that the company did not give due notice and also reneged on promises of remote work. However, in January 2023, a US District Judge told the plaintiffs that they cannot pursue it as a group suit. Judge James Donato cited arbitration agreements the ex-employees signed with the company earlier in making his decision. Twitter ex-employees will now have to proceed with the case individually in closed-door hearings.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, the lawyer, representing the aggrieved parties mentioned that she had filed 300 claims for arbitration and expects to file hundreds more in the coming months. Twitter’s ex-employees are seeking unspecified monetary damages for not following federal and California labor laws.

In all, she is responsible for filing four Twitter lawsuits including complaints related to gender discrimination and alleged disability.

Twitter Taken to Court Over Unpaid Dues

Consulting firm Analysis Group Inc is suing Twitter for non-payment of dues to the tune of $2.2 million after it provided lawyers for the case against Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter. The Boston-based group was hired by twitter to provide support to the three law firms engaged by the company in its case against Musk. The consulting firm is demanding payment for its services in its latest Twitter lawsuit.  With multiple teams of professionals to “advance Twitter’s interest in the Musk litigation.”

Analysis Group’s lawsuit claims that the company engaged its services to fight Musk when he tried to backtrack out of the Twitter deal.

Earlier, Twitter was taken to court by advisory firm Innisfree M&A Incorporated for non-payment of dues worth $2 million. The advisory firm filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court stating that the social media site is yet to honor its obligations.

A landlord is also allegedly suing the company for not paying rent for one of its San Francisco properties. The complaint filed in January in the California Superior Court in San Francisco states that Twitter did not pay $136,260 for its office space, which is not the headquarters. Earlier, Musk had stopped paying rent for all of Twitter’s global properties as he struggled to find ways to cut costs.

According to one attorney, this might be a tactic by Twitter to renegotiate rent agreements as having Twitter as a tenant is a lucrative deal. But regardless, the lax attitude has irked landlords and if Twitter continues this it could signal the end of some partnerships. Musk’s Twitter experiments have continued to make news as the billionaire tries to come up solution that sticks.

Twitter’s woes do not just end with lawsuits. Recent reports indicate that more than half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers have reduced spending or exit the platform after the takeover deal. For a company struggling to stand on its own, losing advertisers and battling lawsuits is a costly affair and will considerably push back its profitability goals. Musk also revamped the subscription service in an attempt to bring in revenue. 

In a tweet on February 5, CEO Elon Musk had revealed that Twitter is pushing towards break-even status and public support is much appreciated.

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Last year, during a moderated Q&A session at the Romain College of Business, Wozniak had accused Tesla and Musk of peddling lies. Before that in 2018, he had called out the electric carmaker for making false promises about self-driving cars.

Yet again, Woznaik has called out the automaker for cheating customers. He mentioned that his Tesla falls woefully short of Musk’s claims and that the billionaire has robbed him and his family of tons of money.

Apple co-founder accuses Tesla of stealing from customers

Steve Wozniak complained about losing thousands of dollars on the latest self-driving technology since 2016, when Tesla first offered Full Self-Driving (FSD) as an invalidated commercial product in beta. He stated that Tesla overpromised and under-delivered, disappointing customers and stakeholders.

The Apple co-founder told CNBC’s Squawk Box that he was deliberately misled by Musk, and driving his car is “a horrible, frightening experience.” Earlier, Tesla sold the Full Self-Driving (FSD) package for its vehicles for $5,000 or more, if the software was already installed in the purchased vehicle. But now years after purchasing the upgrade, his happy, faraway dream is a nightmare to ride in. The cars require a licensed driver to monitor them, despite the self-driving software.

He had also bought into Tesla’s early claims of robotaxis and self-driving cars.

“My life has been based on total honesty,” Wozniak said. “Everything you say is totally honest. You don’t hide things. You don’t make things up. You don’t make yourself seem better. A lot of honesty disappears when you look at Elon Musk and Tesla.” He even went on to compare his former partner Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.

“Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are very similar, and I don’t like to say that,” says Apple Co-Founder @stevewoz. “They both want to be seen as the important person and be like a cult leader. But a lot of honesty disappears when you look at @elonmusk and $TSLA.” pic.twitter.com/A5YUt5ZNIs

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) February 9, 2023

The engineer’s claims suggest that he believed Tesla’s promotional video that is alleged to have been staged at Musk’s request.

Industry leaders know that Wozniak is not entirely wrong. Recently, the Department of Justice opened an investigation into Tesla’s claims about automation. 

Elon Musk and Tesla’s unfulfilled promises

In the past few years, Tesla has faced increased scrutiny over its tall claims that have never morphed into reality.

In 2019, Musk said that Tesla will have robotaxis on the road by 2020. He based his claims on data Tesla had gathered its vehicles on the road. But Tesla missed its mark. If there is one thing the automaker has been consistent in, it is in missing his mark. Even the first Tesla SUV, Model X, faced a delay of over two years.

The robotaxis were supposed to be an instrument of passive income, as owners could instruct the vehicles to ferry people to and fro and charge passengers for the service. At the time he claimed that the fleet would work smoothly, provided it received an over-the-air update.

Today, in 2023, FSD has still not managed to live up to Musk’s early claims. Customers who paid for the $15,000 option have become disillusioned and lost hope.

But Wozniak might be onto something with his statement about Musk’s aspirations to becoming a cult leader of sorts. In the past, when Musk was asked why he made such bold claims in comparison to the sober ones of other car manufacturers, he brushed off the underlying accusation saying that it might shock people to realize that even he can be wrong from time to time.

Although his robotaxis have not seen the light of day, Musk is set to reveal some of his grand Tesla plans on March 1. Until then, Tesla fans can only hope that this is the year the carmaker delivers on his promises.

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