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Elon Musk puts Twitter's value at just $20 billion

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Agence France Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Tesla-founder Elon Musk attends a discussion forum at the Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) Conference, in Stavanger, Norway, 29 August 2022. EPA-EFE/Carina Johansen" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/overseas/11/01/elon.jpg"/><figcaption>Tesla-founder Elon Musk attends a discussion forum at the Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) Conference, in Stavanger, Norway, 29 August 2022. EPA-EFE/Carina Johansen</figcaption></figure></div><p>NEW YORK, United States - Elon Musk has put the current value of Twitter at $20 billion, less than half the $44 billion he paid for the social media platform just five months ago, according to an internal email seen by American news media.</p><p>The email to employees dealt with a new stock compensation program in the San Francisco-based company and the attribution to employees of stock in X Holdings, Twitter&#x27;s umbrella company since Musk purchased it in late October.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/02/15/23/someone-else-could-be-running-twitter-this-year-says-musk">&#x27;Someone else&#x27; could be running Twitter this year, says Musk</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/12/22/22/twitter-owner-musk-seeks-new-ceo-but-casts-big-shadow">Twitter-owner Musk seeks new CEO, but casts big shadow</a></li></ul><p>The compensation plan values the platform at $20 billion, slightly more than that of Snap ($18.2 billion), parent company of Snapchat, or of social network and creative website Pinterest ($18.7 billion), both of which, unlike Twitter, are publicly traded. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/01/22/23/more-expensive-subscription-for-ad-free-twitter-coming">Musk announces more expensive subscription for ad-free Twitter</a></li></ul><p>An emailed query from AFP sent to Twitter&#x27;s communications department generated an automatic response in the form of a poop emoji.</p><p>In the internal email, Musk describes the brutal contraction in Twitter&#x27;s value. He says the platform faced such grave financial difficulties that at one point it was on the verge of bankruptcy.</p><p>&quot;Twitter was trending to lose ~$3B/year,&quot; Musk said in a message posted Saturday on the platform.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/12/20/22/timeline-twitter-mayhem-since-musk-takeover">Timeline: Twitter mayhem since Musk takeover</a></li></ul><p>He cited a revenue drop of $1.5 billion a year and a debt-servicing burden of the same amount -- leaving it with &quot;only 4 months of money.&quot;</p><p>Musk, Twitter&#x27;s majority share holder, added simply: &quot;Extremely dire situation.&quot;</p><p>But he then said that with advertisers -- many of whom fled the platform after the mercurial billionaire bought it -- now beginning to return, &quot;It looks like we will break even&quot; in the second quarter of the year.</p><p>Since taking control, Musk has sharply trimmed the group&#x27;s payroll, from 7,500 to fewer than 2,000 employees.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/12/22/22/musk-says-crazy-cost-cuts-have-saved-twitter">Musk says &#x27;crazy&#x27; cost cuts have saved Twitter</a></li></ul><p>He said in the email that he sees a &quot;clear but difficult path&quot; to a valuation of $250 billion, without saying how long that might take.</p><p>Musk, who is also the chief executive of Tesla Inc. and aerospace group SpaceX, said that Twitter would allow employees of the social network to cash in shares every six months. </p><p>tu/rle/bbk/dw</p><p>© Agence France-Presse</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0CNm1R1p6bo?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Elon Musk has put the current value of Twitter at $20 billion, less than half the $44 billion he paid for the social media platform just five months ago, according to an internal email seen by American news media.