According to the latest estimates from Fidelity, as of the end of November, the valuation of Musk’s X platform had shrunk by 71.5% from the price he paid for Twitter at the time, to about $12.5 billion. The investment group disclosed the new valuation on Monday. In October 2022, Musk acquired the social media giant for $44 billion, and Fidelity first wrote down the value of its shares in Twitter in November of the same year.
Fidelity was part of the investment consortium that helped Musk acquire Twitter, a deal that included $33.5 billion in equity and the remainder financed through debt, and Musk turned Twitter into a privately held company after the deal was completed.
Before acquiring and renaming Twitter, Musk had been highly critical of the company. He believes the platform has been spreading a left-wing "ideological virus" due to fundamental biases among the company's leadership and employee base.
In his first months at Twitter, Musk laid off thousands of employees and remained cavalier about threats from advertisers to leave the platform.
It's worth noting that while Fidelity is a shareholder in this privately held company, it doesn't necessarily have much inside information about X's financial performance. Other shareholders may value X shares differently.
It was reported at the end of October last year that X would sell shares to employees. Its equity plan showed that the company was valued at US$19 billion, which was a decrease of about 57% from the price at which Musk acquired Twitter.