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Twitter may be worth a third of what Musk paid for it last year, figures show

Financial services firm Fidelity has reduced the market value of its own stake in the company for a third time.
Financial services firm Fidelity has reduced the market value of its own stake in the company for a third time. Financial services firm Fidelity has reduced the market value of its own stake in the company for a third time.

Twitter may now be worth one third of what Elon Musk paid for the social media platform just seven months ago, figures show.

Financial services company Fidelity has reduced the market value of its equity stake in Twitter for a third time, now putting it at 6.55 million dollars (£5.28 million). That is down from the nearly 20 million dollars (£16.14 million) Fidelity valued its stake at in October.

It is unclear how Fidelity came up with its valuation figures, but as a public company it is required to provide investors with updates on its holdings.

Because Twitter is a private company now called X Holdings, information about its finances cannot be verified.

Twitter logo on an eyeball
Twitter logo on an eyeball Mr Musk paid 44 billion dollars for the social media site (Yui Mok/PA)

Mr Musk took control of Twitter in October, after a protracted legal battle and months of uncertainty. The CEO of Tesla, who also owns SpaceX, bought Twitter for 44 billion dollars (£35.5 billion).

The billionaire financed the purchase with funds including loans from a group of banks.

Mr Musk has said the 44 billion dollar price tag for Twitter was too high but that the company had great potential.

By April, Mr Musk was telling the BBC that running Twitter has been “quite painful” but that the social media company is now roughly breaking even after he acquired it late last year.

Mr Musk predicted at the time that Twitter could become “cash flow positive” in the current quarter “if current trends continue”.