X Now Worth 71% Less Than When Elon Musk Bought It As Twitter, Fidelity Estimates; Here's a Timeline of the Decline

A new valuation from one of X’s (formerly known as Twitter's) investors has revealed that the social media platform is now worth an estimated 71.5% less than what it was when Elon Musk bought it. The asset management firm, Fidelity Securities, which was a part of the investment group that helped Musk take over, has now valued its stake at $5.3 million, which is significantly lower than the $19 million initial valuation of its shares in October 2022, when Musk bought Twitter, per CBS News.  

A timeline of X's decline

In October 2022, at the time of Musk’s takeover, Fidelity valued its stake at $19.66 million. However, after Musk saddled the company with $13 billion of debt and made erratic decisions regarding content moderation, more than half of the advertisers halted spending on X within a month after Musk's acquisition.

By March 2023, the advertising revenue of the platform declined by 50%, Musk said, as per a Fortune report. The platform did try selling Twitter Blue subscriptions to recoup the losses but it is yet to take off. In May 2023, Fidelity slashed the valuation of its stake in X to $6.6 million or by nearly two-thirds since Elon Musk acquired the company. That put the company’s overall valuation of X Holdings Corp at just $14.75 billion, per The Guardian.

Next in October 2023, Fidelity slashed the valuation further by an estimated $6.3 million. Now, the new valuation from Fidelity's Blue Chip Growth Fund, which reported data through November 30, 2023, valued its shares of X at just $5.3 million. That’s down about 71.5% from the value of its stake at the time of the takeover. As the company reportedly hasn’t disclosed any change in its stake in X, this means that the value of the entire company has also fallen by nearly 72%.

This also means that the X is now worth roughly $12.3 billion, or less than the $13 billion in debt the billionaire took on to purchase the platform, per Deadline.

Events leading up to Twitter’s lowered valuation

Before Twitter’s acquisition, Musk had been deeply critical of the company, arguing that it posed a threat to democracy and civilization itself. He argued that the social media platform had been propagating a left-wing “mind virus” and its content moderation policies were dangerous.

Further upon taking over, Musk fired thousands of employees in the opening months of his leadership. He has also been embroiled in several controversies, scaring advertisers away while maintaining a cavalier attitude toward them. Further, X’s paid subscription and different colored verifications caused a lot of trouble to users. The paid model hasn’t yielded yet as the company’s valuation is in a steady decline.

In November 2023, major advertisers including Disney, Apple, and Coca Cola pulled paid advertising off the platform after Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on social media. Musk had praised a post that said Jews "have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them," CBS News reported.

While Musk apologized for his actions, he had a rough reply from the advertisers who pulled out of the platform. In The New York Times Dealbook Summit, Musk told the advertisers to “Go F**K themselves”, claiming that no one could blackmail him for money.

Musk further said that the ad boycott could "kill the company" but he defiantly added, he hoped that the advertisers stop advertising.

What does this indicate?

All of this indicates that X's acquisition has been a financial mess for Musk. However, his vast net worth is likely to carry him through it. Musk had sold large blocks of Tesla shares before acquiring the company, but he still holds 13% of the automaker’s stock, per Deadline. Tesla’s stock has returned to healthy levels in recent months helping Musk remain as the world’s richest person.