Autocrat-loving billionaire and narcissistic man-child Elon Musk is demonstrating that his takeover of Twitter in order to spite people who called him mean names was a bad idea. Not only have users abandoned it, but advertisers have left over the instability and lack of moderation for the social media site. Now, in an internal memo, Musk pegged the value of Twitter at under $20 billion, less than half the $44 billion he paid for it 18 months ago:
"Twitter is worth less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it six months ago having lost more than $20bn (£16.4bn) in value, according to calculations based on a leaked memo from the billionaire.
Musk suggested in memo to the social media company’s staff that it is now valued at less than $20bn. This compares with the $44bn he paid for it in October 2022.
The company’s steep devaluation follows Musk’s turbulent takeover. Several large advertisers have left the platform and a major source of funds for Musk’s purchase of the company, the investment firm Fidelity, has written down the value of its stake by 56%. [snip]
Musk’s email also said that, before a spate of high-profile, acrimonious layoffs the company had been about four months from running out of money.
Twitter’s headcount has been cut from about 7,500 to about 2,000 employees, according to figures Musk put forward in December." (our emphasis)
Musk thought he was smart in directing Twitter to the political right, using it to enable the worst in the MAGA cult, while cutting jobs in a reckless way, only to bring some back in desperation. Instead, he's created a financial tar baby for himself, and turmoil for Twitter's employees.
(photo: Tesla)
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