Musk's X lost half its value in a year

SAN JOSE: The social media platform X has lost significant value since billionaire Elon Musk bought it a year ago under the name Twitter, reported dpa news quoting media reports.

In an allotment of shares to employees, X was valued at a total of US$19 billion, Fortune magazine and financial news agency Bloomberg reported on Monday. Musk paid around US$44 billion for Twitter in October 2022.

Since then, Musk renamed it X and said he wants to build out the platform as an app with more functions, including financial services.

The platform has been struggling since the takeover due to a significant drop in advertising revenue. Musk said several times that they are only about half as high as they once were.

Many companies are avoiding X as an advertising platform because they fear a negative environment for their brands.

Musk is trying to fill the gap with subscription revenue. In addition, he took out loans of around US$13 billion for the takeover - which are now weighing on X and which are racking up interest of around US$1.2 billion per year.

--BERNAMA-dpa