Plunging U.S. revenue at X risks opening up a "massive hole" on its balance sheet that Musk needs to plug to stave off its financial collapse.

Musk’s repeated outbursts against advertisers have dried up the main source of revenue for the loss-making company formerly known as Twitter. A recent decision to sue them for heeding his own advice to not buy ads on the platform hasn’t helped. At some point, he will have to provide a fresh infusion of cash to salvage his $44 billion takeover.

    • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
      13·
      3 months ago

      I was talking with a solar company about a solar install with battery storage last year, and they only offered the Powerwall as an option. I literally laughed at them and said there was no way I was tying an enormously expensive piece of home infrastructure to Tesla, because they couldn’t guarantee it’d keep working if Tesla decided to shift direction.

      • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        3 months ago

        I have rejected every one of the endless stream of door to door solar panel sellers primarily because not ONE would leave me substantial documentation of any kind to decide if I wanted to talk to them - the only thing they wanted was a full “consultation.” My view is that if you can’t give me something that illustrates genearlly what you are about to pitch to me, then you probably just want the chance to apply some shady sales tactics.

        Were these door to door guys? Did you go with them? Do you have any opinions on the door to door guys? 🙂

        • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
          3·
          3 months ago

          No, this was part of a group buy program in my area, which was designed to reduce prices. I ended up turning them down because it was still more expensive than it seemed like it should be, and they were going with an older single inverter system instead of a newer and more efficient micro inverter system.

          I’ve heard the door to door guys tend to massively upcharge. I haven’t had any come through here, though, so I don’t have any direct experience.

          • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            Thanks! (Sorry for the late reply.) Any particular resources you’d recommend for research? Everything I find googling is either immediately clearly an advertisement, or becomes clearly an advertisement as I continue reading.

            • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
              2·
              3 months ago

              Honestly I don’t have anything specific I’d recommend. When I was looking into it, I just did a ton of reading on forums along with articles about how to get everything set up. I also looked at the prices I was offered compared to the prices I’d be able to pay elsewhere, and got quotes from several different companies.

              In the end there were a bunch of reasons I didn’t go with solar. I really love it as an idea, and I really want to do it, but it’s enormously expensive. There are lease options, but they’re also expensive and many of them seemed predatory. My utility ended their purchasing program for solar-generated power, and I’m still required to pay a large monthly fee to be connected to the grid, so I couldn’t plan to offset my costs there either. The tax credits are helpful, but you still need to pay up front.

              • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
                2·
                3 months ago

                Thanks! I appreciate this analysis - and predatory is exactly how I felt about the people who came to my door, even if they were polite and friendly, and even though I couldn’t seem to dig out that word.