X's Valuation Plummeted By Two-Thirds Since Elon Musk's Takeover

Fidelity Investments, an American multinational financial services corporation, has disclosed that valuation of X, Elon Musk’s social media venture, has fallen from $44 billion to about $12 billion, which is a 71.5 percent drop from the price paid by Musk for the former Twitter Inc., as reported by Axios, citing disclosures from Fidelity.

Fidelity has reduced the valuation of its holding in X by an additional 11 percent at the end of November on the back of challenges faced by the ad-funded platform in attracting advertisers in 2023 on account of the disagreement between Elon Musk and other CEOs of the world”s topmost companies, who used to contribute a significant amount of X”s ad revenue, over Musk”s antisemitic stand.

Fidelity started devaluing the X shares the month following Musk”s acquisition before reducing the valuation by 10 percent earlier in November, when Musk used obscene words against the adversaries who decided to boycott X. However, other publicly traded social media platforms have improved their valuations, as Meta stock rose 4.9 percent in November and Snap shares surged by 38.2 percent.

Many companies, including Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Walmart, Apple, IBM, Sony, Comcast (including NBC Universal), and Paramount, had boycotted X over its alleged anti-Semitic stand. These companies reportedly contribute almost 7% of X’s total income.

In response, Musk said, “I don’t want them to advertise.”

Musk also used profane words against these companies, saying, Go [expletive] yourself.” “If someone is going to blackmail me with advertising or money, go [expletive] yourself,” he said.

In July, Mr. Musk confirmed that ad revenue for X had dipped by 50%. Last month, Musk was seen sharing an anti-Semitic post, which he later called the “dumbest” thing he had ever shared online.