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Twitter’s value has reportedly dropped to about $15 billion, slightly more than one-third of the $44 billion that Elon Musk paid for it in late October 2022. The $15 billion valuation is based on Fidelity’s latest analysis of its stake in the company.
“Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund’s stake in Twitter was valued at $6.6 million as of April 28, according to the fund’s monthly disclosure released Sunday,” The Wall Street Journal wrote today. “That is down from about $19.7 million at the end of October, shortly after Musk’s takeover, and the third time Fidelity has marked down the value of its Twitter stake, public disclosures show.”
Fidelity’s new calculation “puts Twitter’s overall valuation at about $15 billion, or roughly a third of the deal price,” the WSJ wrote. Twitter is identified in the Fidelity filing as X Holdings, the Musk-owned holding company that owns X Corp., which merged with Twitter. Fidelity’s new valuation of Twitter was previously reported by Bloomberg.
“It’s unclear how Fidelity arrived at its new, lower valuation or whether it receives any non-public information from the company,” Bloomberg wrote.
Musk said he overpaid
Musk funded most of the Twitter purchase with his own money but also used $13 billion of debt, saddling Twitter with interest payments that reportedly amount to $1.5 billion a year. Though Musk paid $44 billion, Twitter wasn’t necessarily worth that much.
Musk acknowledged that he was “obviously overpaying” for Twitter shortly before the deal closed. Musk cut costs by getting rid of most of Twitter’s employees; he also allegedly failed to pay many bills as companies have lined up to sue Twitter for nonpayment.
In a March 24 email that called Twitter an “inverse startup,” Musk told employees that its value had dropped to $20 billion. Musk also told staff that he “see[s] a clear but difficult path” to a future valuation of more than $250 billion.
