SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk mentioned Twitter is now value about $20 billion, in accordance with an e mail he despatched the corporate’s staff on Friday, a big drop from the $44 billion that he paid to purchase the social community in October.
The e-mail, which was seen by The New York Instances, was despatched to staff to announce a brand new inventory compensation program. In it, Mr. Musk warned employees that Twitter remained in a precarious monetary place and, at one level, had been 4 months away from operating out of cash. He mentioned “radical modifications” on the firm, together with mass layoffs and value chopping, had been essential to keep away from chapter and streamline operations.
“Twitter is being reshaped quickly,” Mr. Musk wrote, including that the corporate may very well be regarded as “an inverse start-up.”
Twitter’s worth has declined as Mr. Musk has dramatically overhauled the corporate. In October, Mr. Musk took Twitter non-public, which suggests it’s not obligated to offer transparency about its funds. However the billionaire has indicated publicly that the corporate misplaced income as advertisers fled the platform after his takeover, and prompt that Twitter was in peril of chapter.
The $20 billion determine values Twitter barely greater than Snap, the mum or dad firm of Snapchat, which has just lately struggled with an promoting droop and predicted its income would fall. Snap, which has a market capitalization of about $18 billion, has about 375 million every day energetic customers, in contrast with Twitter’s 237.8 million within the firm’s remaining public disclosure earlier than it went non-public.
Mr. Musk didn’t reply to a request for remark and an e mail to Twitter’s communications division was returned with a poop emoji. The corporate’s new valuation was earlier reported by The Information.
In response to Mr. Musk’s e mail concerning the new inventory compensation program, Twitter staff will obtain inventory in X Company, the holding firm he used to purchase the corporate. These awards can be granted beneath the $20 billion valuation. Mr. Musk additionally mentioned within the e mail that he believed Twitter might sometime be value $250 billion.
Twitter will plan to permit staff to promote the inventory each six months, Mr. Musk added, akin to the apply at SpaceX, his privately held rocket producer. The gross sales of personal inventory would permit staff to have “liquid inventory, however with out the inventory value chaos and lawsuit burdens of a public firm,” Mr. Musk wrote.
