ah.
financial crisis
Multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has lost an astonishing amount of value since he took over in late 2022.
The value of shares in investment asset manager Fidelity’s Blue Chip Growth Fund has fallen by a shocking 78.7 percent, according to recently released disclosures. TechCrunch reports that Fidelity invested $19.66 million in X through the fund, but the value of that stake had fallen to about $4.19 million as of the end of August.
This means the asset manager currently values the social media platform at just $9.4 billion, compared to the $44 billion Musk raised in debt and equity to acquire the company. far cry.
This news highlights just how disastrous Musk’s leadership has been for X. The company is draining hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advertising revenue as its mercurial CEO focuses on turning the platform into a cesspool of disinformation and hate speech.
Let’s run for the hills
Fidelity had already written down the value of X shares in March, implying at the time that Twitter had lost 73 percent of its value since Musk took office.
Social media platforms are incredibly different from just two years ago. The entrepreneur has used the platform to promote racist conspiracy theories, amplify dangerous disinformation campaigns, and attack his critics.
During a tantrum on stage at the New York Times Dealbook Summit in November, Mr. Musk called advertisers “fuck you” after calling a stray anti-Semitic conspiracy “actual truth.” He infamously said this.
Unsurprisingly, this confusion scared away advertisers in droves. A recent study by data firm Kantar found that a record 26% of advertisers plan to cut spending on Twitter next year, suggesting a major withdrawal.
“Marketers are stewards of their brands and need to trust the platforms they use,” Kantar’s director of global thought leadership, Gonza Bouvani, said in a statement last month, as quoted by the Guardian. ” he said.
“X has changed a lot in recent years and can become more unpredictable by the day,” she added. “In such an environment, it’s difficult to have confidence in your brand safety.”
Meanwhile, users also abandoned the platform in droves. According to the Financial Times, X has lost nearly a fifth of its daily active users in the US and a third in the UK over the past 12 months.
In short, there are plenty of signs that Musk is doing incredible damage to the company — a major stain on his resume that should serve as a warning to investors.
More on X: Elon Musk under ‘free speech absolutist’ is actually suspending far more people on Twitter than before
