Elon Musk has confirmed that the social media platform formerly known as Twitter is now worth $19billion – less than half of the $44billion he paid to acquire it.
The billionaire and Tesla founder acquired the platform in April last year, where he spent $44billion in the purchase, and proceeded to enlist a complete overhaul of many of the features.
Now, under two years since he took over the site – which he has since rebranded as X – it has been confirmed that the brand is now worth less than half of what he initially paid for it.
The report was shared yesterday (October 30) in a new update from Fortune. In the article, it was revealed that Musk awarded all of the employees who weren’t fired in the takeover equity in the company. This, he said, was valued at $19billion – the equivalent of $45 a share.
That is a 55 per cent drop in value from when he bought Twitter back in April 2022, however, according to some the report still has the chance of being an overly optimistic estimate. This comes as Rolling Stone reported that the mutual fund company Fidelity – which contributed over $300 million to Musk’s Twitter takeover – thinks the figures may be incorrect, and estimates that the company is now worth 65 per cent less than last year.
on Musk account on Twitter X is displayed on a smartphone on October 16, 2023. CREDIT: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images
Similarly, even if the $19billion valuation is accurate, the figure is still $1billion less than what Musk claimed he thought X/Twitter was worth back in March – when an internal email showed that he valued it at $20billion.
Following his takeover of the company, Musk has made countless headlines for the changes he has implemented. These include the removal of legacy verified blue ticks and plans to put X (formerly Twitter) behind a paywall in order to deter bots.
Earlier this month, he also stopped the site from displaying news story headlines, and later announced plans to hide the number of replies, retweets and likes on posts.
Elsewhere, the platform was sued under its X Corp title by a Florida-based legal marketing company that claims the platform’s rebrand infringes its trademark.
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