Twitter starts paying interest on debt Elon Musk took to purchase company – Times of India

Twitter has reportedly made its first interest payment on the $12.5 billion debt – and some more – which Elon Musk took last year to purchase the social media platform. The billionaire acquired the company in a $44 billion deal in October 2022.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the initial interest payment, an estimated $300 million, was due and paid on Friday. It was also reported that Twitter paid that amount to seven banks. Previously, the publication said that Twitter will have to pay about $1 billion towards its debt every year.
Annual interest may exceed $1.2 billion
The report also says that the annual interest that Twitter has to pay could exceed $1.2 billion. Reportedly, before Musk took over Twitter, the company was paying around $100 million in annual interest.

Twitter’s finances dwindle
Since Musk’s takeover, Twitter has been struggling financially. Scores of advertisers paused advertising due to concerns over the platform’s new content moderation policies, hitting the company’s ad revenue hard.
In order to recover from the losses, Musk took certain steps, including launching a paid Blue subscription, selling off office furniture, reducing the workforce, slashing the benefits to employees and offering incentives to companies who advertise on the social media platform.
Twitter lost its 500 top advertisers
Earlier this month, a report by The Information cited a person with direct knowledge of the matter as saying that the company’s daily revenue on January 17 was 40% lower than the same day a year ago.

Siddharth Rao, an engineering manager overseeing the staff working on Twitter’s ad business, reportedly told employees that over 500 of Twitter’s top advertisers paused spending on Twitter since Musk took over in late October.
‘Silver lining’ for Musk
Recently, a report by Axios said that more than three dozen news outlets, media companies and sports leagues were planning content sponsorship deals on Twitter in the first half of this year.
“Media companies, newsrooms and sports leagues are reaping too much revenue and marketing advantage to quit the platform,” Axios said. Musk shared this report on Twitter with the caption, “The party is on!!”