The social media platform X has lost 71% of its value since it was bought by Elon Musk, according to the mutual fund Fidelity.
Fidelity, which owns a stake in X Holdings, said in a disclosure obtained by Axios that it had marked down the value of its shares by 71.5% since Musk’s purchase.
Musk acquired Twitter for $44bn in October 2022 and renamed the platform X in July 2023. Fidelity’s estimate would place the value of X at about $12.5bn.
The number of monthly users of X dropped by 15% in the first year since Musk’s takeover amid concerns over a rise in hate speech on the platform.
From what I recall they did have some periods of profitability and weren’t too far from it again. Then Musk saddled the company with debt payments that make profitability much more difficult (and then did all the dumb shit that destroyed revenue making profitability basically impossible).
They were close, but the company management felt they were not likely to have sustainable, predictable profits that would match what their investors wanted and they said that they really didn’t have any ideas on how to bring in more revenue. When Musk offered them way too much money, it was a no brainer - take heaps of cash, walk away from a loser business, no more stress. That’s why they were quick to sue him to force the deal through.
You have to consider that investors in Twitter wanted the company to become Apple, Netflix or Facebook, and that wasn’t (isn’t) going to happen.