Loss of value
Musk estimates that Twitter is only worth 20 billion
Twitter boss Elon Musk has acknowledged that the social network is now worth half as much as when it was acquired five months ago.
Published
Elon Musk acquired Twitter five months ago.
AFP
Elon Musk currently estimates the value of Twitter to 20 billion dollars (some 18.35 billion francs), against 44 five months ago, at the time of the acquisition of the social network by the entrepreneur, according to an internal document consulted by several American media.
The internal letter to employees concerned the incentive within the San Francisco group and the allocation of shares of X Holdings, an umbrella company Twitter since its takeover at the end of October. The share grant program values the platform at $20 billion, nearly the capitalization of Snap ($18.2 billion), the parent company of Snapchat, or the social network and creative site Pinterest (18.7), all two sides.
Solicited by AFP via the email address dedicated to the press, Twitter generated an automatic response containing only an emoji in the shape of a pile of excrement.
From 7500 to 2000 employees
In the internal document, Elon Musk justifies the brutal contraction of the valuation by the financial difficulties experienced by the group, a time on the verge of filing for bankruptcy, according to him. “Twitter was set to lose $3 billion a year,” Elon Musk wrote in a message posted on the platform on Saturday.
This figure is explained, according to him, by a loss of turnover of 1.5 billion dollars and maturities of debt of an equivalent amount. “But now that advertisers are coming back, it looks like we’re going to break even in the second quarter” of 2023, said Twitter’s chief executive and majority shareholder. Since taking control, Elon Musk has reduced the group’s workforce from 7,500 to less than 2,000 employees by resorting to successive waves of layoffs.
In the internal document, Elon Musk says he sees “a difficult but clear path” towards a valuation of the group around 250 billion dollars, without mentioning a deadline. The man who is also at the helm of Tesla and the aerospace group SpaceX announced that Twitter would open a window every six months allowing employees of the social network to sell their titles, which are no longer listed.
(AFP)