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New investor evidence suggests Twitter lost half its value after Elon Musk takeover

By Nithya Bose in Twitter/X News, posted January 5, 2023

The Elon Musk Twitter takeover made headlines in 2022 after the billionaire’s surprise announcement he was going to buy the firm.

It was first thought to be a joke, but Musk shocked Wall Street by signing a binding contract for a $44 billion takeover.

But after a couple of months, he pulled back from the deal prompting Twitter to lodge a suit against him to close.

The controversial legal case ended in October when he agreed to purchase Twitter for $44 billion.

Soon after the takeover, Mr. Musk fired more than half of Twitter's workforce and ousted several top executives.

The social media giant's value has been unclear and at one point, Musk even warned it could be in red.

Now a clue has been given in a regulatory filing by Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund, which invests the majority of its assets in firms with market capitalizations larger than $10 billion.

At the end of October, this asset management firm's fund valued its stake in Twitter at $19.66 million.

Another filing said that by November 30, that holding had shrunk to $8,626,218.

That means Fidelity's investment in Twitter has declined by 56 percent since October.

Fidelity was one of 19 investors listed as supporting Musk's purchase of Twitter and invested around $316 million in the deal.

Musk has drastically cut Twitter's costs since the acquisition was completed.

He compared the company to an airplane “headed toward the ground at high speed with the engines on fire and the controls don’t work.”

In one of his most recent cost-cutting moves, he suspended janitorial services at the company's headquarters in San Francisco this month.

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Twitter was also sued separately by its landlord, Columbia Property Trust, for failing to pay rent at the same headquarters.

Musk said last month that he will step down as CEO after millions of Twitter users asked him to do so in an unscientific poll that the billionaire created and vowed to follow.

He is reportedly looking for a new CEO.

Musk did not immediately return messages for comment.

Source: Fortune

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