---
title: "Twitter Admits Elon Musk Has Destroyed More Than Half Its Value"
description: "It's been a bit more than a year since Elon Musk bought Twitter, and in that time, the company's value has plummeted more than 50 percent. "
date: "2023-10-31"
modified: "2023-10-31"
authors:
  - name: "Noor Al-Sibai"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-elon-musk-value-halves"
categories:
  - "Elon Musk"
  - "Future Society"
  - "The Industrialists"
tags:
  - "elon musk"
  - "social media"
  - "the digest"
  - "twitter"
---

# Twitter Admits Elon Musk Has Destroyed More Than Half Its Value

![It's been a bit more than a year since Elon Musk bought Twitter, and in that time, the company's value has plummeted more than 50 percent. ](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/twitter-elon-musk-value-halves.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty / Futurism\</em\>*

## Hell, Meet Handbasket

It's been a [little over a year](<https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/28/tech/elon-musk-year-owning-twitter-in-tweets/index.html>) since Elon Musk bought Twitter, and in that time, the company's self-proclaimed value has plummeted more than 50 percent.

First [reported by *Fortune*](<https://fortune.com/2023/10/30/x-formerly-twitter-valued-19-billion-employee-stock-plan/>), the valuation of the since-renamed X was listed as just $19 billion in its new employee equity plan — a 55 percent drop from the $44 billion Musk paid for it in October of last year.

According to documents [reviewed by *The Verge*](<https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/30/23938969/x-twitter-valuation-19-billion-employee-shares>), the company declared that "the fair market value per share is determined by the Board of Directors based on a number of factors in a manner that complies with applicable tax rules." As that outlet points out, Musk is currently X's chair, and in his year of ownership, he hasn't yet appointed a formal board after [dissolving the old one](<https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/tech/elon-musk-twitter-board/index.html>) as one of his first acts of ownership.

Bleaker still, it's possible that X's self-valuation may *still* be inflated given that Fidelity, one of Musk's biggest investors in the site, [marked down the site's worth by 65 percent](<https://www.axios.com/2023/10/29/fidelity-twitter-x-value-elon-musk>), which would make it worth a paltry $15.4 billion. That figure, despite [some increases](<https://www.axios.com/2023/07/31/fidelity-marks-up-its-twitterx-shares-for-second-straight-month>) in the mutual fund's reported stock valuation for Twitter earlier this year, is roughly in line with the [$15 billion it valued the company at](<https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/31/tech/twitter-value-fidelity-estimate/index.html>) over the summer.

## A Busy Year

These latest numbers aren't exactly shocking given everything that's happened in the year since Musk took over Twitter, of course.

Between [laying off or driving away 80 percent](<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/technology/elon-musk-twitter-year.html>) of the company's previous 7,500-person staff, changing its name to X as [part of his obsession](<https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/07/elon-musk-twitter-x-letter/674836/>) with building an "everything app," [de-verifying legacy blue checks](<https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-blue-check-marks-2a9fbe4ea805763f50d4de2c417ce4ff>) and granting them to anyone who throws $8 bucks his way, [hemorrhaging both advertisers](<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-traffic-falls-under-elon-musk-threads-mastodon-bluesky-competition/>) and [users](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-use-way-down>) and altogether making the site [even more hellish](<https://slate.com/technology/2023/08/elon-musk-blocks-x-twitter-explained.html>) than it was before, Musk has transformed Twitter into a gross facsimile of what it once was — and those of us who were on it in the pre-Elon era remember that it [was no cakewalk then](<https://mashable.com/article/delete-twitter-is-bad-now-kill-it-with-fire>), either.

It makes perfect sense that the site is now valued at less than half of what he bought it for, which seems very much like just desserts.

**More on Elon Twitter:** [*Twitter CEO Says Everything's Totally Fine Actually*, *Thanks for Asking*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-ceo-everything-fine>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/noorfromfuturism.bsky.social>)