Social media company X is now worth less than half of what Elon Musk paid for Twitter, according to internal documents quoted by the press. The billionaire investor purchased the platform, Twitter at the time of acquisition, for $44 billion last October. He has previously admitted to overpaying for it.
Social Media Giant X Worth Less Than Half of the Price Elon Musk Paid for Twitter
Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has valued itself at $19 billion, a number of media outlets revealed at the start of the week. That’s around 55% less than what the tech entrepreneur paid for the company in October 2022.
The figure is based on equity in the company offered to employees in the form of restricted stock units at $45 a share, the New York Times and Fortune Magazine reported Monday citing internal documents and sources familiar with the matter.
Twitter was valued at $44 billion when Musk bought it and he paid $54.20 a share to take it private last year, Forbes recalled in an article. The total was based on a mix of equity and debt and the purchase saddled the company with $13 billion in debt, Bloomberg noted.
Last year, Musk tried to call off an agreement to buy the social networking service at $54.20 a share but eventually closed the deal when Twitter sued him. After the acquisition, he has stated on multiple occasions that he overpaid for the company. According to a memo leaked earlier this year, Musk suggested the company was worth less than $20 billion.
While admitting that Twitter was worth about half of what he paid for it, Elon Musk has maintained he sees long-term potential in the company. One of his objectives has been to turn X into a “super app,” offering a wide range of services, from instant messaging to payments and banking. A few days ago, he announced he is transforming the social media platform into a financial hub.
Since the acquisition, Musk has made a number of changes such as renaming Twitter to X, loosening its content moderation rules, taking a course toward paid subscriptions, and laying off staff. Some of his decisions have been viewed as controversial and are believed to have driven away advertisers. In September, Musk revealed that X’s revenue from ads was down 60%.
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