Twitter is worth $20 billion, less than half of what I paid, says Musk

Twitter owner Elon Musk estimates the social network is worth $20 billion. The value is less than half of the US$ 44 billion he spent in October last year to buy the company.

The number was released on Friday (24.Mar.2023) in an internal statement obtained by the North American newspaper The New York Times. Musk used the email to announce a new stock compensation program to employees.

When Musk bought Twitter, the company went private. This means that it is no longer listed on the stock exchange and is no longer required to maintain transparency about its finances.

However, the South African businessman publicly indicated that the company lost revenue after its acquisition. In last week’s email, he again said that the social network was close to bankruptcy.

“But now that advertisers are coming back, it looks like we’re going to break even in Q2” of 2023, estimated the owner of the company.

Musk, however, pointed out that Twitter remains in a difficult financial situation. He said that “radical changes” promoted in the company, such as mass layoffs and cost cutting, are necessary to avoid bankruptcy and improve operations.

“Twitter is being revamped fast,” wrote Musk, adding that the company could be considered “a reverse start-up”.