X now valued at $19bn – less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it

‘We’re rapidly transforming the company from sort of what it was,’ Musk told employees recently

Elon Musk’s X is now valued at about $19bn (£15.6bn) or less than half of what he paid for the social media company, according to a new report.

The multibillionaire Tesla and SpaceX chief last year finally bought the microblogging platform that was formerly called Twitter for $44bn or $54.20 per share.

Mr Musk’s purchase was completed after a months-long legal battle with the company.

A new valuation has now found that the company’s value has decreased by 56 per cent in the past 12 months, according to internal documents.

Stock grants handed out to employees showed X/Twitter is now worth about $19bn, Fortune reported on Monday.

Mr Musk earlier said he had overpaid for the social media platform that he called “an inverse start-up”.

In March, he told employees in an email that they would receive stock awards based on a $20bn valuation of the firm.

The valuation drop comes as several high-profile advertisers have withdrawn after the Tesla titan’s controversial takeover of the company.

Mr Musk’s reign has been marred by mass lay-offs, the chaotic rollout of a number of new features, including the site’s verification process, and the reinstatement of previously suspended high-profile accounts.

The company was also rebranded X along with a new logo to replace the bird icon that had been there since the platform’s creation.

There have also been rising concerns around X’s approach to content moderation. The EU recently opened an investigation into the company as misinformation linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict began to spread on the platform.

In July, Mr Musk shared that X is “still negative cash flow” with a “50 per cent drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load”.

Banks involved in financing Mr Musk’s deal to buy Twitter are also reportedly struggling to mitigate the impact of the platform’s decline in value on their balance sheets.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss, however, has remained optimistic about the future of the platform. Mr Musk claimed in an email last year that he saw a “clear, but difficult, path to a >$250B valuation” for the company.

In a recent company meeting, he also reportedly expressed his belief that the rebranded X could serve as an all-purpose app with a range of features like job recruitment and dating services.

“We’re rapidly transforming the company from sort of what it was, Twitter 1.0, to the everything app with an all-inclusive feature app where you can basically do anything you want on our system,” he said, according to The New York Times.

The Independent has reached out to X for a comment.