Twitter had many profitable quarters before Musk bought it, and lots of cash on hand with a lot of runway. It was not dying in any meaningful sense. His changes have only destroyed profitability by substantially reducing advertising revenue.

The company had some profitable years pre-covid, and Elon's first action was to nearly double their debt _and_ slash their income.

He may have done far worse things as well but that depends on your opinion of his product/feature changes. But the additional debt he has saddled them with and the revenue he deprived Twitter of aren't really arguable, and his attempts to cut costs by short term slash and burns don't make anywhere near the dent needed to offset them.

Yes, yes he can.

At worst, it was treading water.

Huh. New perspective.

I don't like Musk but is this a mercy killing?