Musk's X Experiences Decline, Dropping Below $10 Billion as Value Noticeably Decreases
Back in 2022, Elon Musk splurged a whopping $44 billion on purchasing Twitter. Fast forward to 2024, and a financial report from Fidelity Investments paints a stark contrast: Twitter's worth has plummeted, now mere pennies compared to Musk's original investment.
As Techcrunch digs up, the financial reports from Fidelity reveal a grim picture. Back when Musk took ownership of Twitter, Fidelity invested a staggering $19.66 billion in the company through its Blue Chip Fund. Now, that investment seems like a bad bet, valued at only $4.19 billion, a drastic decrease of more than 78%.
Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion back in 2022. Now it’s worth less than a quarter of that, according to a new financial disclosure from the investment firm Fidelity.
This isn't the first time Fidelity has taken a hit on Twitter. Going back a year after the initial investment in 2022, X's valuation had dropped an alarming 65%. And every financial disclosure has since seen the value sliding further.
first spotted by Techcrunch, newly released
It's not hard to understand why. With major advertisers fleeing after Twitter's transformation into X, a platform rife with bots and Nazi content, it's a far cry from its former glory. That's a tough sell for automakers trying to advertise sleek vehicles above posts from low-follower Nazi accounts.
financial documents from the investor showed X Holdings Corp taking a haircut. When Musk bought Twitter two years ago, Fidelity invested $19.66 billion dollars into the company through its Blue Chip Fund. As of this writing, Fidelity estimates the value of that investment has plummeted more than 78% since then to $4.19 billion.
Musk's brash responses to advertisers haven't helped either. When they "blackmailed" him with advertising threats, he responded with famous Musk flair: "Go fuck yourself." If advertisers don't return, he declared, X would die.
fled when it became X. Changes Musk made to the site chased away normal people, allowed bots to flourish, and filled people’s feeds with weird Nazi and pseudo-Nazi content. A car company doesn’t want to advertise cars above a post from a low-follower count weirdo with an anime avatar calling for a genocide.
And so it goes, with Musk's unwavering stance on free speech and his political leanings pushing both users and advertisers away. Over the summer, X was taken offline in Brazil, leaving millions of users searching for alternatives. Even when Musk eventually caved to the judge's demands, the damage was already done.
go fuck themselves. “If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself,” he said.
Reports of X's suppressive practices continue to circulate. In 2023, journalist Ken Klippenstein was banned after publishing a dossier from Iranian hackers, and the site subsequently blocked access to the material. X did much the same in 2020 during the presidential election, suppressing Hunter Biden's laptop files.
capitulating to his demands. But the damage was already done, millions of users in Brazil started accounts on other sites and it’s yet to be seen if they’ll return to the platform.
By the end of 2023, X's value had slumped to just $9.4 billion, quite a fall from its $44 billion starting point. But there's talk of a comeback, with X reportedly in negotiations for fundraising at the original $44 billion valuation. Whether this is a turnaround or just a fleeting hope remains to be seen.
X banned journalist Ken Klippenstein from the site after he published a dossier on J.D. Vance he obtained from Iranian hackers. The site has since blocked access to the material and marked it as “potentially harmful” when people try to share it.
- Despite Elon Musk investing a significant amount in tech company Twitter in 2022, the value of Fidelity Investments' investment through its Blue Chip Fund, which was $19.66 billion, has drastically decreased by over 78%, now worth only $4.19 billion in 2024, as revealed in the financial documents from the investor.
- The tech industry is closely watching the situation, with Techcrunch reporting that the major advertisers have fled Twitter after its transformation into X, a platform laden with bots and offensive content, which makes it challenging for automakers to advertise their sleek vehicles.
- The financial report from Fidelity Investments also highlights that this isn't the first time the investment firm has experienced a loss in value from Twitter investments. Going back to 2022, X's valuation had dropped an alarming 65% after the initial investment, and every subsequent financial disclosure has shown the value continuing to slide further.
- Amidst all this, the tech giant Twitter's CTO Parag Agrawal and CEO Jack Dorsey, who left the company after Musk's purchase, have avoided any public comment regarding the investments and the impact on the company's future compliance with regulations. href