Elon Musk’s X is now valued at $19 million, less than half of what Elon Musk paid for the platform one year ago.
The new valuation was determined via a leaked employee equity compensation plan for the social media platform, sent via an internal note and acquired by multiple media outlets.
Employees at the company formerly known as Twitter were given equity in the company at a valuation of $19 billion on Monday, a stark 55% drop from the $44 billion Musk shelled out a year ago to acquire the company, according to Fortune.
The company previously offered staff stock in March at a $20 billion valuation for the company, which has since decreased further.
Fidelity, one of Musk’s largest investors, valued X even lower than Musk, 65% less than when he purchased the platform. This implies that Fidelity’s valuation of X is between $15 and $16 billion.
According to the memo, the “fair market value per share is determined by the board of directors based on a number of factors in a manner that complies with applicable tax rules.” However, under Musk’s leadership, a formal board has not yet been created.
The equity that X is giving employees is called restricted stock units (RSUs). They are earned over a period of four years and require a “liquidity event,” such as a sale of the company to be taxed as income, according to The Verge.
