Twitter’s acquisition price is “double the actual value”, mask admits | Forbes JAPAN Official Site (Forbes Japan)
Musk said Twitter was actually worth about half the purchase price, corroborating reports that he had valued Twitter at about $20 billion in an internal memo.
But Musk didn’t say he regretted the acquisition, but reiterated his earlier assertion that Twitter could be a place where free speech is guaranteed.
Meanwhile, Musk’s statements on Twitter about his financial situation have been inconsistent. Last November, he publicly said at an investor conference that the company would “become the most valuable company in the world,” but told internal staff that it had to significantly increase subscription-based revenue. We are on the road to bankruptcy,” he said, adding that he was losing advertisers.
He also argued last week that Twitter should be cash flow positive next quarter, with a “near break-even point” due to significant job cuts and a rebound in advertising revenue. But since the company was taken private by Musk, it’s impossible to verify its actual financials.
Musk repeatedly tried to withdraw the offer between April 2022 and the closing of the deal in October. However, he was forced to make the deal after facing a lawsuit that forced him to make the deal.
Musk has repeatedly said that growing Twitter’s “Twitter Blue” membership is vital to his future financial stability. But news outlet Mashable estimated last month that Twitter has about 475,000 paying subscribers, less than 0.2% of its daily active users.
Musk cites Twitter Blue’s selling point as the ability to get a blue verified badge next to your username. Musk tweeted last week that he plans to remove the blue badges from “legacy verification accounts” from before he became CEO, and is trying to get people with the old verification badges to pay.
A part of the interview broadcast on the 17th was released as a trailer on the 16th. In the trailer video, Musk said,“The U.S. government had access to all conversations, including direct messages (DMs) on Twitter,” he said.This has caused various speculations.
However, in the conversation that aired on the show, Musk didn’t elaborate further, saying only that “by next month we will have an encrypted option in our DMs.” Since Musk became CEO of Twitter, he has repeatedly mentioned plans to encrypt DMs, but he has so far failed to implement them.
