Twitter’s Worth Dropped To Half Since Elon Musk’s Takeover

The super-rich have unusual hobbies: Many buy and drive expensive sports cars, and others buy expensive networks in order to drive them to the wall. In fact, the latter applies to one person: Elon Musk. Because Twitter/X is – according to Musk himself – only worth $19 billion.

Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter

Almost exactly a year ago, Elon Musk officially took over the short message service Twitter, which is now just called X. The deal was already controversial back then because the Tesla and SpaceX boss paid $44 billion for the social network. That was a sum that was estimated to be far too high in the run-up to the takeover. In fact, very shortly after the announcement or agreement, Musk himself apparently had doubts because he wanted out of the deal.

However, that failed and Elon Musk had to take over Twitter for the agreed price of $44 billion. Since then, there have been discussions and speculations about how much the network, now known as X, is actually worth. With the takeover, Twitter was delisted from the stock exchange and is therefore no longer obliged to publish financial data.

But now there is clear evidence of how much X management and Musk himself believe the company is worth. Yesterday employees received shares in the company, the basis for this is a total value of 19 billion dollars or 45 dollars per share. This is reported by The Verge, citing internal documents, and that means a drop in value of 55 percent – at least compared to what Musk paid a year ago.

According to those documents, that is “fair market value” and was “determined by the Board of Directors based on a number of factors in a manner consistent with applicable tax regulations.” With such employee participation, Elon Musk wants

At least we know what Musk thinks the company’s value is, but even that is considered too optimistic by experts and even partners. One of the Twitter investors, Fidelity, considers the company’s current value to be 65 percent lower than the 44 billion paid back then – i.e. around 15 to 16 billion dollars.

The current worth of Twitter has been a topic of much discussion, especially following its acquisition by Elon Musk. Here’s a summary of the latest information regarding Twitter’s valuation as of 2023:

Twitter’s Valuation in 2023

1. Elon Musk’s Acquisition: Twitter was bought by Elon Musk for $44 billion. This acquisition was funded with $13 billion in loans from commercial and investment banks and $31 billion in equity.
2. Current Estimated Value: Elon Musk himself has stated that Twitter is now worth about $20 billion, as per an email he sent to the company’s employees. This valuation is significantly lower than the purchase price.
3. Reported Value Drop: Reports suggest that Twitter’s value has dropped to about $15 billion, which is just over one-third of the $44 billion paid by Elon Musk for its acquisition.
4. Musk’s Own Math: According to calculations based on Elon Musk’s own math, Twitter may have lost 90% of its value, potentially bringing its worth down to just $4 billion.
5. Valuation After Takeover: At the time of Musk’s takeover, Twitter was valued at $44 billion. However, Musk’s purchase added $13 billion in debt to the company. Recent evaluations have placed Twitter’s value at less than half of what Musk paid, around $19 billion.