Elon Musk said Twitter is now worth about $20 billion, a 55 percent drop from what he paid to acquire the company five months ago, according to an email sent to Twitter employees on March 24, the Information and the tech newsletter Platformer reported yesterday (March 26).
In the email, Musk announced a new stock compensation program for Twitter staff and told them they would receive stock grants based on a $20 billion valuation of the company. After Musk’s acquisition in October 2022, Twitter became a private company and employees’ stock plans drafted during its public-company era no longer applied.
Musk said in the email Twitter is still in a precarious financial position. He described the social media platform as a “an inverse startup” as a result of his drastic cost-cutting measures, including firing 75 percent of its employees, since taking over.
Meanwhile, Twitter’s revenue continues to fall. A Vox report last week estimates more than half of the top 1,000 advertisers on Twitter prior to Musk’s acquisition no longer show ads on the platform. In a December update to its investors, Twitter said its revenue has dropped 40 percent from a year ago.
Nevertheless, Musk said he believes Twitter could someday be worth $250 billion, he said in the email, although the path to get there will be difficult. A $250 billion valuation would make Twitter’s stock grants worth 10 times what they are today.
Twitter didn’t confirm the content of Musk’s email or its latest valuation figure. It responded to a press inquiry with poop emoji.
Musk said in October he and his co-investors were “obviously overpaying” for Twitter at $54.20 per share. Price was also believed to be the main reason he at one point wanted to back out from the deal, signed in April 2022.
