New York: The social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk, is worth less than half of $44 billion he paid for it a year ago, Bloomberg reported.
Since Musk’s takeover, the company has been struggling financially and he ousted a large number of platform’s core employees.
Citing an informed person, the report said ‘restricted stock units awarded to employees value the company at $19 billion or $ 45 a share.’
In what was seen as one of his erratic decisions, the proverbially known Twitter has been replaced with X.
However, the microblogging site still is the official communication platform for governments, top officials, politicians and celebrities.
This distinction it has been enjoying from the rest of the social media platforms helps users directly connect with importance sources.
X suffered fall in advertisements due to what the report said Musk’s erratic decision making and looser content-safety rules.
This has contributed to a 60 percent drop in sales alongside ‘Musk’s purchase saddled the company with $13 billion in debt’, according to the report.
More important Bloomberg previously estimated that X per year owes nearly ‘$1.2 billion in interest payments’ on debt.
Rather than relying on advertisements, Musk is reportedly focusing on paid subscriptions which according to Bloomberg could translate to less than $120 million annually.
The company reportedly has so far been able to persuade less than 1 percent of users to opt for monthly premium service, as per the report.
Musk earlier announced his plans for X to generate revenue from features such as shopping and payments.
Earlier this month, the platform introduced audio and video calling features.
Musk’s ambitious plan, shared with employees, is to make X compete with Google’s YouTube, Microsoft’s LinkedIn and PR Newswire, according to the report.