Since the takeover, most of Twitter’s staff was laid off or resigned. Musk renamed the company X, changed some of its content rules and lost more than half of its advertising revenue.
X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is worth less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it a year ago. Restricted stock units awarded to employees value the company at $19 billion, or $45 a share, according to a person familiar with the matter. A year ago, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. ADVERTISEMENT CONTINUE READING BELOW Fortune earlier reported on the valuation, citing an internal memo. The company has struggled financially under Musk’s ownership.
Musk’s plan for X is to shift away from advertising toward paid subscriptions. But so far the company has persuaded less than 1% of users to sign up for its monthly premium service, translating to less than $120 million annually, Bloomberg has estimated. Musk has also been vocal about turning X into an “everything app” that could generate revenue from features like shopping and payments.