Everyone has experienced regretting a purchase they made at least once, especially if it cost them a lot of money. It might not be as bad as Elon Musk though, given that he acquired Twitter for $44 billion, which has now fallen to a $20 billion valuation.
Twitter's Drop in Value
Amemo states that the employees will be getting stock grants based on the value of Twitter, which according to Elon Musk, is at $20 billion. If that is to be believed, then the platform has lost over half of its value compared to how much Musk paid for its acquisition.
The tech billionaire was well aware that he was overpaying at the time of the purchase, with $54.20 per share. He even attempted to back out of the deal which resulted in a complicated legal predicament, eventually forcing him to go through with the deal.
Musk aims to raise Twitter's valuation to $250 billion. It's obviously an ambitious goal, and while it could be achievable, the platform's state is not looking very good. The Twitter CEO has already made drastic changes just to make sure that the company doesn't go under.
One of the biggest moves was the mass layoff that removed most of Twitter's workforce. In fact, Musk called the social media platform an "inverse startup" because of all the changes he has made to keep the company running, as mentioned in The Verge.
Ironically, some would argue that the drop in the company's value could be tied to the "necessary" changes that the tech mogul implemented to save it. Based on previous reports, most of the moves that Musk has made for the company have only hurt it.
Twitter's Deterioration
One of the biggest drops in revenue that Twitter has gone through is due to advertisers pulling back. Musk claims that activist groups are pressuring the advertisers, while others say that the clients have lost faith due to the new policies under Elon Musk's takeover.
Among the companies that pulled their advertisements were General Motors, Pfizer, Mondelez, and Audi, according to Gizmodo. The issue with advertising can be quite significant for the company since it's their main source of revenue, even before Twitter Blue.
It didn't help the matter at hand when Elon Musk reacted violently when the issue was brought up by Mike Davis, who is a former Chief Counsel for Nominations at the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Davis encouraged Musk to "name and shame" advertisers who complied with the boycotts, mentioning that he had hundreds of millions of followers. The Twitter CEO responded by saying that "thermonuclear name and shame" would happen if it continues.
There's also the way Elon Musk tried to cut costs by not paying rent for Twitter headquarters. This eventually led to two lawsuits from the landlords of two different locations. There's also the bill of almost $200,000 for private charter flights that was also ignored by Musk.
