Peter Thiel Mocks ‘Pot-Smoking’ Twitter Management
Investors have expressed plenty of concerns about Twitter, chiefly about the pace of its growth.
But Peter Thiel, the prominent venture capitalist, found a particularly colorful way to phrase his criticism of the social media company’s management. You might say the conversation reached a new high.
“Twitter is hard to evaluate,” Mr. Thiel said in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday. “They have a lot of potential. It’s a horribly mismanaged company — probably a lot of pot-smoking going on there.”
Mr. Thiel, it should be noted, was an early investor in Facebook, a rival social media giant. And the venture capital firm where he is a partner, Founders Fund, takes a shot at Twitter in its manifesto, “We wanted flying cars. Instead we got 140 characters.”
Even Mr. Thiel’s attempts to be charitable came out like insults.
“It’s such a solid franchise,” he said, “that maybe it works even with all that.”
Calling out the chief executive, Dick Costolo, Mr. Thiel added, “I’m not sure they could do that much better. The C.E.O. can’t really change things that much in these companies. You’d have to fire everybody and start over.”
Mr. Thiel also had choice words for the car-hailing service Uber. He qualified his remarks by noting that he was an investor in Uber’s arch rival, Lyft.
“I’m extremely biased, but I do think Uber is the most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley at this point,” he said.
He acknowledged that he missed the opportunity to invest in Uber early on, “and then the valuation got too high for our liking.”
But he persisted in criticizing Uber, which has used aggressive tactics to recruit drivers and expand in new cities.
“I do think there’s always a question how intensely you’re allowed to compete, and Uber’s probably right at the line,” Mr. Thiel said. “There’s a good chance they’ll get away with it.”
Representatives of Twitter and Uber did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
But Twitter’s allies came to its defense. On Twitter.
Jason Goldman, an early Twitter employee, pointed to an effort supported by Mr. Thiel to create a floating city.
Bijan Sabet, a venture capitalist whose firm invested in Twitter, also chimed in.
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