Musks takeover of Twitter is not a particularly compelling example of this model. In a year he’s cut revenue by 40% (with every month trending worse than the last), not made it cash flow positive even with massive cuts, and is burdened it with tons of debt while making it worth much less. Twitter may turn around but right now I can’t imagine corporate raiders are looking at it as a positive example.
Well, Musk did several things in close succession.
Sure, he scared off advertisers by welcoming nazis onto the platform. That's not something you'd want to replicate.
But he also fired 80% of the workforce, and the product kept working. If you have some subscription software where users keep paying $$$$ whether you add new features or not - getting rid of 80% of those expensive developers could be pretty tempting.
This is an extremely common private equity playbook, that hasn’t seen as wide adoption in software as it has in other industries because there is a presumption that software clients aren’t particularly sticky and the software space allows faster innovation. Twitter is a story that confirms that bias (so far).
I think Unity is the next big test case. If users leave the platform in droves and revenue tanks it will continue to confirm the current hypotheses. That said private equity firms will keep trying it no matter what as the market biases make it an easier space to compete so I’m not sure it matters much to software companies.
Eh, software can be pretty sticky if your users have lots of files in your proprietary format nobody else can read.
A company that uses Photoshop, or Altium, or SolidWorks, isn't going to move off it easily. Hell, existing users will often initially be thankful when product managers stop moving the buttons every 6 months.
Of course you'll stop attracting new customers as your product gets surpassed - but there could be a lot of $$$$ to be extracted before revenue drops to zero.
I would argue that much of Microsoft is built around legacy applications and code that prevents moving to alternative solutions. A lot of companies do not want to spend the time and money to pivot, not have the labor to do so. The true tech debt is a hidden cost where change is a visible cost.
Sure, he scared off advertisers by welcoming nazis onto the platform. That's not something you'd want to replicate.
But he also fired 80% of the workforce, and the product kept working. If you have some subscription software where users keep paying $$$$ whether you add new features or not - getting rid of 80% of those expensive developers could be pretty tempting.