WashingtonElon Musk doesn’t buy Twitter to get richer, but for prestige. “I don’t care about the financial question at all,” he said in April, after closing the deal. According to him, “having a reliable and inclusive platform is extremely important for the future of civilization.”
1,360 M$ in losses in the last two years
Since its founding in California in 2006, the social network has closed only two years with a positive net profit, and has recorded losses of 1,140 and 220 million dollars in the last two years. Although it is common among tech companies to record losses in their annual accounts, it is not the most profitable social network either.
11,000 workers in 2025
The company of microblogging created by Jack Dorsey has been increasing its economic weight over the years and already has more than 7,500 workers, a number that Musk has promised to increase to 11,000 by 2025. Revenues have been increasing in each financial year, placing -se in 2021 at its peak ($5.08 billion), but so has operating spending: it increased 51% in 2021 to $5.57 billion.
330 million users
“Twitter has extraordinary potential,” the new owner wrote in a letter addressed to the board of directors of the platform, “I will unlock it.” With nearly 330 million active users, more than 500 million tweets are posted on the social network every day. Despite its considerable reach, it is in fifteenth position in terms of monthly active users, far behind TikTok (nearly one billion), Instagram (1.4 billion) or Facebook (2.91 billion).
$54.20 per share
In 2013, the company materialized its IPO, with a starting price of $26 and increasing in one day 73% of its value, up to $44.90. In September 2022, shareholders approved the sale of their shares to the American tycoon for $54.20. After this purchase, Musk has announced that the company will stop trading on the New York Stock Exchange and will become a private company. A change that will give you more control over the evolution of the social network, and also more opacity. From now on, Twitter will no longer be subject to the scrutiny of shareholders, to whom it will no longer have to present quarterly results.
44,000 M$, the total of the operation
However, the richest man on the planet had to go into debt to complete the acquisition of Twitter, which is the tenth most expensive purchase in the history of the technology sector. Specifically, of the 44,000 million dollars that the operation has cost, nearly 13,000 are lent by banks and 7,100 million come from equity investors. Despite being able to avoid transparency in financial results, Musk’s new ownership will not be able to hide from paying its debts, which several financial analysts place at a billion dollars a year.