X, the company, earlier known as Twitter, gave stock grants to employees on Monday, showing that it was priced around $ 19 billion, which was paid by Elon Musk to buy the firm a year ago to buy the firm $ 44 billion, according to internal documents seen by The New York Times.
Mr Musk paid $54.20 per share to buy Twitter just a year ago. The tech billionaire has since said he overpaid for the social network. In March, he wrote in an email to employees that he believed the company was worth $20 billion, calling it “an upside-down start-up.”
In the paperwork for the new stock grant, Ax said the equity would be offered in the form of restricted stock units at $45 per share, which employees can earn over time. The company said employees will still be paid cash in the amount of $54.20 for any outstanding shares granted under previous management.
It is unclear why the share price has not fallen by the same percentage as the company’s valuation, although X could have changed the amount of shares outstanding. Fortune first reported on the valuation.
An X spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
In his year as owner of Twitter, Mr Musk has overhauled the company and the social media platform. More than 80 percent of its 7,500 employees have either quit or been laid off. They have changed the service’s verification process, as well as content-moderation rules. Advertising, the company’s main source of revenue, declined nearly 60 percent this summer in the United States. Mr Musk also loaded the company with billions of dollars in debt to help pay for the acquisition.
In November, he famously joked about spending to buy a social media company, asking, “How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start big.”
Mr Musk has said he is optimistic about the future of the company. Last week, at a company meeting celebrating the first anniversary of the deal, he explained that he believed Can work as a multi-purpose app. Times.
“We are rapidly transforming the company from a Twitter 1.0-like situation to an everything app with an all-inclusive feature app, where you can basically do whatever you want on our system,” Mr Musk told employees.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, offered her words of encouragement during the meeting.
“For those who don’t see our vision yet, for those who don’t see what’s happening here at X, stop giving them oxygen,” he said. “Don’t pay any attention to it.”
