Twitter Is Worth One-Third Of What Elon Musk And Co-Investors Paid
is worth only about one-third of what Elon Musk and 19 co-investors paid to acquire it last fall, according to a new disclosure by one of its investors.
Fidelity, which helped back the $44 billion takeover led by Musk, has marked down its investment numerous times in the intervening months. A monthly report of portfolio valuations just issued by the financial institution and mutual fund operator reflected the downgrade. Extrapolating from where Fidelity pegged its stake, all of Twitter would be worth roughly $15 billion, according to an assessment by Bloomberg.
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That number represents not only a major haircut from the purchase price — which Musk and everyone else looking at the situation long ago acknowledged was exorbitant — but also from more recent estimates. Musk himself said in March the social media firm was worth about $20 billion, a level he used as a basis for an employee stock compensation program.
A Deadline inquiry to Twitter’s press relations email address about the Fidelity valuation prompted the now-standard reply of a poop emoji.
Since Musk took control of Twitter, after spending months in court trying to wriggle out of his initial April 2022 acquisition agreement, the company has gone through waves of change. More than half of the total workforce — several thousand employees — has been let go and a number of blue-chip advertisers have headed to the sidelines. An effort to generate revenue from subscriptions via a paid verification program has apparently not gained significant traction.
These challenges and more await former NBCUniversal ad chief Linda Yaccarino, who agreed this month to become CEO of Twitter in June in an awkwardly timed announcement on the eve of NBCU’s upfront pitch to advertisers. Fidelity’s report, which covers activity through April 28, does not factor in the news of a pedigreed exec taking the helm of the company.
While the downturn at Twitter has been a drain on the personal fortune of Musk, who has become one of the world’s richest individuals in recent years, it has been accompanied by a boost on another front. When news of Musk’s Twitter crusade was being digested by Wall Street a year ago, shares in Tesla, the automaker he also runs as CEO, lost ground over concerns he could be spreading himself too thin. In 2023 to date, though, the stock has nearly doubled. Musk is the largest individual shareholder in Tesla, whose market value is about $638 billion.
Source: Deadline
