Updated: The mysterious "X" is Elon Musk's latest twist as Twitter owner
SAN FRANCISCO -- First, Elon Musk painted over the "w" in Twitter's name on the company's San Francisco headquarters. Now, "X" marks the spot in his latest legal wrangling, as he may have merged the social media giant with a company called X Corp.
As reported by Slate on Monday afternoon, according to a court document filed on April 4th, Musk is merging Twitter with the newly-created shell company.
The document was submitted as part of a lawsuit filed against the company and its former CEO Jack Dorsey by conservative activist Laura Loomer.
When the social media giant banned her account in 2019, Loomer filed the lawsuit claiming the action was a violation of federal racketeering laws.
On Tuesday, "X" appeared on Musk's Twitter feed. The post set off a flurry of responses as to what the post meant for the social media platform's future.
Musk has suggested that buying Twitter was a major step toward creating X - which he has dubbed an "everything app."
Among the responses was "X marks the spot"; "Break ups are difficult"; "You should call your employees from now on X-Men"; "And Then There Was X"
Quoting the court filing, Slate reported that "Twitter, Inc. has been merged into X Corp. and no longer exists."
Musk has told the BBC late Tuesday that running Twitter has been "quite painful" but that the social media company is now roughly breaking even after he acquired it late last year.
In an interview also streamed live on Twitter Spaces, Musk discussed his ownership of the online platform, including layoffs, misinformation and his work style.
"It's not been boring. It's quite a rollercoaster," he told the U.K. broadcaster at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters.
It was a rare chance for a mainstream news outlet to interview Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX. After buying Twitter for $44 billion last year, Musk's changes included eliminating the company's communiciations department.
Reporters who email the company to seek comment now receive an auto-reply with a poop emoji.
The interview was sometimes tense, with Musk challenging the reporter to back up assertions about rising levels of hate speech on the platform. At other times, Musk laughed at his own jokes, mentioning more than once that he wasn't the CEO but his dog Floki was.
He also revealed that he sometimes sleeps on a couch at Twitter's San Francisco office.
Under Musk, Twitter has recently antagonized multiple major news organizations by labeling them state-funded media and made crude jokes on the front of its headquarters and on Musk's own Twitter display name.
"Our landlord at SF HQ says we're legally required to keep sign as Twitter & cannot remove "w", so we painted it background color. Problem solved!" -- Musk posted.
National Public Radio announced on Wednesday it was quitting Twitter over the social media company's labeling it state-funded media.
"NPR's organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent," the news organization said in a statement.
The controversial moves come as Twitter continues to face significant business challenges. Analysis firm Similarweb last week reported that traffic to Twitter's ad portal was down nearly 19% year-over-year in March. Many major advertisers have halted spending on Twitter since Musk's takeover over concerns about increased hate speech on the platform and massive cuts to the company's workforce.
Musk has said Twitter is working to improve the platform's ad targeting to increase value for advertisers. "But all the while there have been distractions," said Scott Kessler, technology sector lead at research firm Third Bridge, adding that there are "significant questions about the direction that the company is going."
