Five months after take over Elon Musk has valued Twitter at $20 billion which is less than half the $44 billion that he paid to acquire the micro blogging website, reported AFP.
AFP accessed an email by Musk that brutally describes the contraction of the company's value. He in the mail mentions that the platform faces very grave financial difficulties, he also added that the company at one point was on the verge of bankruptcy.
According to the report by AFP Musk in the mail said, "Twitter was trending to lose $3 billion per year." He also called the situation very dire. But the advertisers who had left earlier are now returning to the platform, he added.
Musk also expects that the social media platform will be breaking even in the second quarter of the year.
Employee stock grant
Musk has also offered employees stock grants at a valuation of approximately $20 billion, reported The Wall Street Journal. Though the details regarding who received the equity grants and the value of the assigned stock is yet to be revealed.
According to the report by WSJ, Musk in a letter to his staff in February said that the firm would make a 'very significant stock and other compensation awards, based on performance.'
Former employees of the company told the US based publication that Twitter offered stock grants that can be vested several years later and will be allocated to employees after six months. These will be in addition to and separate from legacy Twitter equity that was sold at the time of the acquisition in October 2022.
Employees at Twitter
In 2021, the social media giant spent close to $630 million on stock-based compensation with nearly 7,500 employees, said the WSJ report. But currently there are 2,300 active employees as thousands of staff were let go by the company. In a latest set of layoff in February 2023, the company laid off close to 200 employees which account to close to 10 per cent of its workforce.
Further when WSJ asked Twitter some questions through mail it received a poop emoji in response. Elon Musk had also said on Twitter that the microblogging platform will auto-respond to media inquiries.
After Musk took over Twitter the social media platform has been facing many challenges the biggest one being drop in flow of advertiser revenue as many advertisers pulled back.
