Valuation of Musk's X plummets to US$19 billion

The news: The valuation of X, formerly known as Twitter, has dropped to less than half of what Elon Musk paid to buy the social media platform a year ago, The New York Times has reported citing internal documents.

The numbers: The company handed out stock grants to employees on Monday that showed it was worth about USD19 billion ($29.8 billion), down about 55% from the USD44 billion it had a year ago. Musk paid USD54.20 a share to buy Twitter in October 2022.

The context: Musk has since overhauled the company and the social media platform, with more than 80% of its 7,500 employees either quitting or being laid off. He has changed the service’s verification process as well as content-moderation rules. Its main source of revenue, advertising, was down in the US market by almost 60%. Musk also loaded the company with billions of dollars in debt to help pay for the acquisition, the New York Times said in its report.