‘Chief Twit’ knocks £20bn from Twitter: Social media giant has lost half its value since Musk takeover
Twitter has lost more than half its value since Elon Musk bought the company.
The mogul suggested to staff that the social media group is worth just £16bn – about £20bn less than the £36bn he paid in October.
Musk, 51, who has dubbed himself “Chief Twit,” has said he “clearly overpaid” for Twitter.
Slump: Reports suggest more than 500 major advertisers have paused their spending on Twitter since Elon Musk (pictured) bought it
Reports suggest that more than 500 major advertisers have paused spending on the site since Musk bought the site, with daily revenues down 40 percent from a year ago.
Musk, who also runs the electric car maker Tesla and SpaceX, told staff Twitter should be seen as a “upside-down start-up” as he tries to rebrand the company. He said, “Twitter is rapidly being reformed.”
He defended his decision to lay off large numbers of employees, saying the “radical changes” at the social media company were necessary to save money, according to reports from tech site The Information.
Just days after the South African-born billionaire took over, Twitter laid off more than half of its 7,000-strong workforce.
Dan Ives, technical analyst at Wedbush Securities, said: “Musk knew he was paying way too much for Twitter, but once he looked under the hood, it was much worse than feared.”