Elon Musk bought Twitter for the record sum of 44 billion US dollars. But in the meantime, the value of Twitter has more than halved – Musk admits this in an internal memo.
When Elon Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter for 44 billion US dollars, it must have left some in the tech industry breathless. At the time, the Tesla boss was still considered the richest man in the world. Nevertheless, it was an enormous sum.
But the takeover, from which Musk wanted to withdraw in the meantime, already brought the social network into troubled waters. And it is precisely these waters that Twitter has not left since.
Whether it’s mass layoffs, fake verifications or moderation chaos – the short messaging service has been through a lot since Elon Musk took over. And that is now also reflected in the value of the company.
How much is Twitter still worth?
As The Information and Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer report, Elon Musk has revealed Twitter’s current value in an internal memo. The figure is significantly lower than the sum the Tesla CEO has loosened up for the social network.
According to the memo, Musk informed the remaining employees of Twitter in an email about the share allocations to which they were entitled. These are based on a valuation of only 20 billion US dollars – less than half of Twitter’s original purchase price.
Did Elon Musk pay too much for Twitter?
Even before his takeover of Twitter, Elon Musk was already suspicious that his offer for the takeover of Twitter was probably a bit too high. Even then he said that he was “obviously paying too much for Twitter”.
The offer of 54.20 US dollars per share was certainly also a reason why the Tesla boss wanted to withdraw prematurely from his deal with Twitter. At the time, Musk accused the social network of making false claims about fake accounts.
The value of Twitter: where do we go from here?
As Zoë Schiffer writes further, Musk sees Twitter as a “reverse startup”. The company has gone through a phase of radical change. But these changes were necessary.
Now, according to Musk, Twitter has “a clear but difficult path” ahead of it. At the end of this road, however, he sees a company valuation of 250 billion US dollars.
