LONDON (AP) 鈥 Billionaire Elon Musk has told the BBC that running Twitter has been 鈥渜uite painful鈥 but that the social media company is now roughly breaking even after he acquired it late last year.
In an interview also streamed live late Tuesday on Twitter Spaces, Musk discussed , including layoffs, and his work style.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not been boring. It鈥檚 quite a rollercoaster,鈥 he told the U.K. broadcaster at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters.
It was a rare chance for a to interview Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX. After buying Twitter for $44 billion last year, 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 . At other times, Musk laughed at his own jokes, mentioning more than once that but his dog Floki was.
He also revealed that he sometimes sleeps on a couch at Twitter's San Francisco office.
in the wake of Musk's tumultuous acquisition have mostly returned, the billionaire said, without providing details.
Musk predicted that Twitter could become 鈥渃ash flow positive鈥 in the current quarter 鈥渋f current trends continue.鈥 Because Twitter is a private company, information about its finances can't be verified.
After acquiring the platform, as part of cost-cutting efforts. He said Twitter's workforce has been slashed to about 1,500 employees from about 8,000 previously, describing it as something that had to be done.
鈥淚t's not fun at all," Musk said. 鈥淭he company's going to go bankrupt if we don't cut costs immediately. This is not a caring-uncaring situation. It鈥檚 like if the whole ship sinks, then nobody鈥檚 got a job.鈥
Asked if he regretted buying the company, he said it was something that 鈥渘eeded to be done.鈥
鈥淭he pain level of Twitter has been extremely high. This hasn't been some sort of party," Musk said.
