MSN ‘reporting’ on a story by Erin Woo and Martin Peers at The Information (Sorry, I can’t afford to subscribe to The Information…):
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has offered the social-media company’s employees stock grants at a valuation of nearly $20 billion, The Information reported on Saturday. The valuation is half the amount he paid to buy Twitter. In October last year, Musk paid $44 billion to acquire the micro-blogging site. The report said it was an acknowledgment of how much Twitter’s value has dropped since the deal — but it is still well above public market valuation levels for Twitter’s rivals.
Or, as Mike Masnick (@mmasnick@mastodon.social) so apt pointed out on Mastodon: “Alternate headline: Elon Musk admits he’s set $24 billion on fire… so far.”
Ouch.
In January this year, a research firm reported that advertising spending on Twitter had dropped by 71 per cent in the previous month, December. The decline came as top advertisers reduced their spending on the social media platform following the takeover by Musk. Twitter ad spending saw a 55 per cent drop in the month of November from the previous year. Another report said Twitter’s revenue was down 40 per cent year over year.
I just don’t see how anyone can think Twitter is going to make it, and if it does make it, what will it be? By all reports, Twitter has become a cesspool of anti-semetic and other hate speech. Sad.
Personally, I’ve moved to Mastodon. It’s great — it’s like Twitter was 15 years ago.