Twitter’s value has fallen by $25bn since takeover by Elon Musk

Elon Musk has told Twitter staff that the social media company’s value has fallen to $19bn (£15.6bn), marking a significant reduction from the $44bn he paid for the business last year.

The new figure emerged in an internal memo that laid out plans to award employees equity in the business at $45 per share, as first reported by Fortune.

This figure is significantly lower than the $54.20 a share deal that Mr Musk agreed to in October 2022 and comes after a turbulent 12 months for Twitter, which has since rebranded as X.

Since taking over the platform, Mr Musk has been on a crusade to drive increased revenues after a steep decline in advertising sales.

The take-private deal was aimed at boosting free speech on the site, as Mr Musk overturned bans on thousands of accounts previously blocked for breaking the social network’s rules.

However, fears of a rise in hate speech led to advertisers abandoning Twitter in their droves.

Mr Musk said in July that Twitter would post roughly $3bn in revenues for the year, down from around $4.4bn in 2022.

Since his acquisition, Mr Musk has slashed thousands of jobs in a bid to reduce costs, while also introducing new fees.

His attempted overhaul has coincided with fresh competition from Mark Zuckerberg’s rival app Threads, which also allows users to post short, text-based posts.

Twitter last month began trialling a yearly $1 subscription fee for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines.

New accounts must pay the fee in order to be able to use features such as tweeting, replying to messages and liking posts.

Although Twitter said the trial was intended as an anti-spam measure, it has raised concerns that the fee could be rolled out widely. Twitter has been free since it was launched in 2006.

The charges came after Mr Musk threatened to hide Twitter behind a paywall, having already introduced premium accounts, which currently cost between £9.60 and £11 per month in the UK.

Twitter last month was investigated by the EU over the dissemination of violent content and misinformation related to the Israel-Hamas war.

The platform was named alongside TikTok and Facebook-ower Meta for failing to tackle the spread of disinformation and other harmful material.

Twitter has been deluged with doctored videos and bot accounts since Hamas’s massacre of hundreds of Israelis on Oct 7.

The platform has struggled to contain the situation after Mr Musk’s sweeping redundancies.

Mr Musk has also come under fire for allowing Russell Brand to continue making money from the social network despite multiple allegations of sexual assault and rape against the comedian. Mr Brand has vehemently denied all the allegations.