$13 Billion of new loans - $2 Billion of old loans + $33 Billion Elon Musk paid == $44 Billion deal.

Even then, the $33 Billion Elon paid for includes equity gathered from Saudi, Larry Ellison and other friends of Elon. Elon probably fronted only $24 Billion of his own money, with $9 Billion coming from others IIRC (though this is all estimated, as this side of the deal was behind closed doors).

In many ways, this makes it worse. The $33 Billion of equity is junior to the $13 Billion of debt owed to the banks. That means that if Fidelity’s valuation of $20 Billion is true, then Elon (and friends) have gone from $33 Billion in equity to $7 Billion in equity. Its not perfect because the loan’s value has also declined ($13 Billion may be owed, but everyone’s getting nervous about Twitter’s ability to pay it back). I think the $13 Billion loan is only worth $9 Billion now, or so? So maybe the Elon+co have a proper valuation of $11 Billion or so.

Its all made up numbers anyway so maybe my rant doesn’t matter. But all in all, the $44 Billion number is a bit too shallow thinking for my tastes.