Bad business decision by world’s richest man? Elon Musk’s Rs 337000 crore acquisition is now worth just…

Elon Musk is known for his visionary approach and business acumen which have helped him become the richest person in the world. However, the most famous acquisition by the SpaceX and Tesla boss in recent times is now seeming to be a not-so-brilliant business decision. Musk’s passionate move for Twitter, now X, cost him a whopping $44 billion (around Rs 3,37,000 crore). However, the company’s value has now seen a sharp decline to less than half of what he shelled out for the micro-blogging platform. 

Now known as X Corp, the tech giant has seen its valuation drop to less than half of $44 billion Musk paid last year (including a $13 billion debt) for Twitter. It is now valued at just $19 billion or around Rs 1,58,200 crore. 

As per internal documents accessed by The Verge, X employees were awarded equity in the company at a $19 billion valuation, or $45 per share. This means a huge 55 percent dip from the original purchase price. Earlier, X offered stock to its employees at a $20 valuation in March. 

The owner of X posted in July that the platform’s business was “still negative cash flow”. He said that this was because of a “50 percent drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load”. A bullish CEO Linda Yaccarino last month stated that the company aims to be profitable by early 2024. 

(Inputs from IANS)