Have we reached peak Musk, peak Twitter and peak social media?

It looks as though Twitter will be a smaller business in the future, writes Hamish McRae

If he has destroyed value in the business, or simply paid too much for it, that would make a big dent in his finances (AFP/Getty)

Peak Musk? Peak Twitter? Peak social media? Or maybe we’ve reached all three?

The takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk has many moving parts. There are too many stories already embedded in it to be able to sort out what really will seem important in a few years’ time and what is just the noise of the moment. But let’s try, if only to give people a template into which to fit their own interpretations of what’s going on.

Start with the man himself. I have only met him once, when I was seated one place away from him at a dinner in London just before the pandemic. He was extremely courteous, even to some annoying chap who came over and tried to pitch some business idea to him while he was eating his dessert.