Elon Musk values Twitter at half his own purchase price in stock offer to workers

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, has valued the company at less than half that price in a recent stock option offer to employees. 

Musk's email to staff this month, which announced stock grants to employees, valued Twitter at around $20 billion, according to a report from the Wall St. Journal.

As per media reports, in the email, Musk stated that he sees a "clear, but difficult" path to a valuation of over $250 billion, but did not specify how long it might take. When contacted by media outlets for a comment on the matter, Twitter responded with a poop emoji. This comes as no surprise, as Musk recently announced that all inquiries to Twitter's press line would be responded to with a poop emoji.

This email to employees came in the same week that Musk sent a memo informing staff that working from home was not an option. He has been vocal about his dislike of remote work and ended Twitter's work-from-home accommodations last November, firing thousands of employees shortly after. At the time, he argued that drastic changes were necessary to prevent the company from going bankrupt.

Musk's commitment to promoting free speech on the platform has led to the release of internal documents and communications from Twitter's previous leadership, which have been coined "The Twitter Files". Independent journalist Matt Taibbi recently published the first installment of these reports, which focused on Twitter's internal discussions that led to the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential election.

The internal email from Musk to Twitter's employees describes the contraction in the platform's value, stating that at one point, it was on the verge of bankruptcy. According to Musk, Twitter was trending to lose $3 billion a year, with a revenue drop of $1.5 billion per year and a debt-servicing burden of the same amount. He added that the platform had only four months of money left.

Despite this dire situation, Musk expressed optimism that Twitter's fortunes were improving. He said that with advertisers returning to the platform, it looks like the company will break even in the second quarter of this year. Since taking control, Musk has sharply trimmed Twitter's payroll from 7,500 to fewer than 2,000 employees.

In the email, Musk announced that Twitter would allow employees to cash in shares every six months. While he sees a "clear but difficult path" to a $250 billion valuation, the current valuation of $20 billion represents a significant decrease from the $44 billion price he paid for the company just five months ago.