Twitter’s value is now just a third of what it was when CEO Elon Musk bought it in October — now it sits at $15 billion just months after the mogul’s acquisition.
A recent valuation by Fidelity of its stake in the social media giant showed that the company has lost value as their piece — $20 million in October — is now just $6.55 million.
In January, a Fidelity report indicated that the value plummeted, falling to $7.8 million after a huge fall in November.
The financial news comes as Twitter and its controversial CEO, who bought the company for $44 billion in October, continue to make headlines, most recently due to major outages and big-name exits from the app.
On Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she would say goodbye if Musk didn’t stop interacting with an account parodying her.
Twitter’s value is now just a third of what it was when CEO Elon Musk bought it in October, about $15 billion compared to last year’s $45 billion sticker price
In their financial disclosure report released Tuesday, Fidelity estimates their stake in X Holdings Corp – Musk’s investment group – at $6,554,644.
The exact value of Twitter has not been released, but Fidelity’s report implies an overall drop in valuation for the app.
Fidelity gave no reason for lowering its stake.
Musk has repeatedly admitted that he overpaid for Twitter when he bought it for a whopping $44 billion in October.
In late March, Musk stated that he believed Twitter was worth “less than half” of what it cost him to buy it in the fall.
In a company-wide email, he said the social media giant had lost so much money since its initial purchase that it was valued at just $20 billion.
At the time, he also defended his decision to lay off thousands of employees to cut costs and sell certain assets.
The most recent financial analysis ignores new headlines, including Musk naming Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s advertising chief, as his successor.
On May 12, Musk announced that Yaccarino will “focus primarily on business operations, while I will focus on product design and new technology.”
In March, Musk said he believed Twitter was worth “less than half” of what it cost him to buy it
Latest financial analysis ignores new headlines including Musk naming Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s advertising chief, as his successor
Since the Musk acquisition, Twitter has found itself on the tail end of negative headlines for a range of issues.
A big hit came Tuesday when Musk was targeted by left-wing Democratic Rep. Ocasio-Cortez about a “verified” social media account that made fun of her.
The politician said she was “assessing” what to do after the billionaire responded to a tweet from the parody account, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Press Release (parody).”
“FYI there is a fake account here impersonating me and going viral,” AOC tweeted. “Twitter’s CEO turned it on, which increases visibility.”
She claimed the account “released false policy statements,” after previously tweeting about her boyfriend’s farts and other issues.
“I’m looking at how to proceed with my team,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
“In the meantime, be careful what you see,” she warned her followers.
Musk had recently responded to a tweet from the parody account, stating, “This may be the wine talking, but I’m in love with @ElonMusk.”
The Twitter CEO replied with a fire emoji.
The parody account had sent similar jokes to the congressman.
“Every time my boyfriend farts, I make him plant a tree to offset his carbon emissions,” one tweet reads.
On Monday, the account also told its 170,000 followers to “take a moment this Memorial Day to remember all the citizens who lost their lives trying to get through our southern border.”
On Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she would say goodbye if Musk didn’t stop interacting with an account parodying her.
Her message came after Musk responded to a tweet from the parody account, stating, “This may be the wine talking, but I’m in love with @ElonMusk”
A decimated workforce and shrinking server capacity is blamed for launching the disastrous presidential campaign by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (right) on Twitter Spaces
Another hit came last week in the form of a massive technical glitch as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attempted to announce his 2024 presidential run.
DeSantis’ attempt sparked mass chaos as staff members rushed to get his planned Twitter Spaces announcement online while 500,000 people waited.
Twitter’s small Spaces workforce — originally 100 but now reduced to three — was blamed in addition to low server capacity.
Half a million people waited more than 20 minutes for the event to start, and people who could join were often kicked out.
Spaces relies on Amazon Web Services servers that are “insanely under-provisioned,” the Daily Beast reported.
“Virtually no one who remains knows the current architecture through and through,” said another on the employee forum.
Following the event, Twitter’s head of engineering announced his resignation.
Twitter has also faced a series of lawsuits in recent months since Musk acquired the company.
In February, Twitter faces lawsuits demanding more than $14 million in unpaid bills from landlords and sellers. In December, it was reported that Musk had stopped paying rent for the company’s Seattle office.
Former executives who were part of the mass layoffs the day Musk took over also filed a lawsuit against the company in April. They sued for more than $1 million in legal bills.
The news hasn’t all been bad for Twitter since the Musk acquisition. Former Fox host Tucker Carlson announced plans for a new show on Twitter after he was removed from his top-rated slot on the news network.
“We’re also bringing some other things, which we’ll tell you about. But for now, we’re just thankful to be here. Free speech is the most important right you have. Without that, you have no others,” Carlson said when announcing the show.
Musk has also promoted the “record high usage” of Twitter users, saying advertisers have bounced back.