X chief claims company close to 'break even'

Claim leaves many surprised, given the platform's financial struggles after being acquired by Elon Musk

By
Web Desk
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X CEO Linda Yaccarino. — Twitter/@lindayaX
X CEO Linda Yaccarino. — Twitter/@lindayaX

The chief executive officer of X — formerly Twitter — Linda Yaccarino, has claimed that the company is on the verge of achieving a "break even" point.

Yaccarino's first-ever broadcast interview since taking the helm of the company reveals her optimism amid recent rebranding efforts at the micro-blogging site, according to Tech Crunch.

This claim has surprised many, given the platform's financial struggles after being acquired by South Africa-born American business magnate, Elon Musk, resulting in a sharp decline in ad revenue due to reduced brand investments.

However, X went to desperate lengths to earn more cash flow. Cases in point, when users received a rate limit for not subscribing to Twitter Blue and when the company charged the developer community exorbitant rates for API access.

But if what Yaccarino has said can be trusted, it appears X's financials are experiencing an upheaval. This is particularly significant in the wake of the company reducing its staff from nearly 8,000 to 1,500 during its layoff wave. Even though X is yet to pay the promised three-month severance pay to those impacted by the layoff.

Meanwhile, these are not the only payments that remain outstanding for the company. X is also confronted with several lawsuits for not paying rent for its numerous offices around the world.

"Our data licensing and API with X is an incredible business. Our new subscription business [is] growing. And then, part of my, what I would say, expertise and experience, and what I came to do, was to drive advertising at the company," Yaccarino said.

The X CEO added that her daily meetings with brands are encouraging for its ad revenue. Meanwhile, the company is also incorporating AI-powered ad tech to allow brands to pick what kind of content they want their ads to be placed with. Musk had earlier said, product placements that are less conservative would be sold at a discount.