- Elon Musk has reportedly valued Twitter at $20 billion, which is far less than the $44 billion he paid for the platform last year.
- The valuation was shared with employees in an internal memo.
- Musk wants to compensate remaining employees with stock options as the company is being “reshaped rapidly.”
We are nearing a year since Elon Musk first signalled his intent to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Since he took over as Chief Twit in October of last year, things have quickly descended into madness at the social media platform, with mass layoffs, an inability to pay bills, and massive changes to the user experience with each passing week.
It is perhaps no surprise then that the latest valuation of Twitter is far less than Elon Musk paid for it. This according to a report by The Information (paywall), which cites an internal memo sent out by Musk highlighting stock compensation options for those remaining employees.
Said memo values Twitter at $20 billion, which if true, is less than half what Musk paid for the platform last year. Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer, who saw the memo and also shared some details, says that the current Twitter owner plans to get the company to a $250 billion valuation, noting that there is a “clear but difficult path.”
Precisely what that path will be remains to be seen, but it looks like the first step is bringing in as much money to the platform as possible. One of the key elements to this plan appears to be Twitter Blue, which was made available in South Africa earlier this month and rolled out globally shortly thereafter.
Whether that alone can help stem the tide of the aforementioned mass layoffs and financial issues still plaguing the company remains to be seen.
Either way, however, the first six months under Musk have proved a painful one for Twitter. The only solace the company’s owner can take at this stage is the fact that Twitter is still valued higher than other social media platforms like Snapchat, as Engadget points out.
What the situation will look like one year after the acquisition was finalised is anyone’s guess at this stage.
