LOS ANGELES: X, the company formerly known as Twitter, handed out stock grants to employees Monday that showed it was worth about $19 billion, down about 55% from the $44 billion that Elon Musk paid to buy the firm a year ago, according to internal documents seen by NYT.
Musk paid $54.20 a share to buy Twitter just over a year ago. The tech billionaire has since said he overpaid for the social network.In March, he wrote in an email to workers that he believed the company was worth $20 billion, calling it “an inversestartup.”
In the paperwork for the new stock grants, X said the equity would be offered at $45 a share in the form of restricted stock units, which employees can earn over time. Employees will still be paid in cash in the amount of $54.2 for any outstanding shares that were granted to them under previous management, the company said. It’s unclear why the share price has not dropped by the same percentage as the company’s valuation, though X could have altered the amount of shares outstanding.
In his year of owning Twitter, Musk has overhauled the firm. Over 80% of its 7,500 employees have either quit or been laid off. He has changed the service’s verification process, as well as content-moderation rules. Advertising was down in the US by almost 60% this summer. Musk also loaded the company with billions of dollars in debt to help pay for the acquisition. Musk remains optimistic. Last week, he laid out how he believed X could serve as an all-purpose app with an array of features, including dating services and job recruiting.
Musk paid $54.20 a share to buy Twitter just over a year ago. The tech billionaire has since said he overpaid for the social network.In March, he wrote in an email to workers that he believed the company was worth $20 billion, calling it “an inversestartup.”
In the paperwork for the new stock grants, X said the equity would be offered at $45 a share in the form of restricted stock units, which employees can earn over time. Employees will still be paid in cash in the amount of $54.2 for any outstanding shares that were granted to them under previous management, the company said. It’s unclear why the share price has not dropped by the same percentage as the company’s valuation, though X could have altered the amount of shares outstanding.
In his year of owning Twitter, Musk has overhauled the firm. Over 80% of its 7,500 employees have either quit or been laid off. He has changed the service’s verification process, as well as content-moderation rules. Advertising was down in the US by almost 60% this summer. Musk also loaded the company with billions of dollars in debt to help pay for the acquisition. Musk remains optimistic. Last week, he laid out how he believed X could serve as an all-purpose app with an array of features, including dating services and job recruiting.