• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, January 19, 2023

Twitter’s ad revenue is still in the dumps, and the company is now facing a large debt payment that could force another painful decision as soon as the end of this month. 

On Tuesday, Siddharth Rao, a manager who oversees engineers working on Twitter’s ad business, told employees that daily ad revenue was down 40% compared to the same day a year ago, according to The Information and Platformer. He also confirmed that more than 500 of Twitter’s top advertisers have suspended advertising since Elon Musk acquired it and became CEO in October. 

In addition, a “massive” interest payment on the $13 billion Musk borrowed to buy Twitter could come due as soon as the end of January, according to The Financial Times. 

Twitter agreed to pay about $1.5 billion in annual interest, and if it misses a deadline and Musk refuses to sell more shares of Tesla to cover the debt, management may file for bankruptcy to begin a debt restructuring process, per the report. 

Twitter, which lost $221 million in 2021, also continues to generate negative, reputation-damaging news on a more or less daily basis. 

So far this week, for example, it has been revealed that the Taliban is now using the new Twitter Blue subscription to buy the blue checkmarks that used to be reserved for “active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest” verified by Twitter; that hate speech on Twitter in Japan, India and Brazil has increased significantly due to cutbacks in already limited content moderation teams in those large markets; and that municipalities and other public agencies that now depend on Twitter to deliver real-time information about emergencies, transportation and other services are now worried about disruptions in accounts and the potential for distortion of their information.