When billionaire Elon Musk bought the social network Twitter, later renamed X, in 2022, he didn’t do it alone. Although the businessman paid the bulk of the $44 billion sum from his own funds, he also relied on bank loans and numerous investors, the full list of which became known not so long ago. Now it has become known that this deal resulted in “stunning losses” for investors.
Image source: David Swanson/Reuters
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who invested about $2 billion in Twitter shares owned by him and the Saudi holding company, wrote at the time of the deal that he believed in Musk’s ability to become an excellent leader of the platform. Two years later, Alwaleed says he’s still happy with the investment, but for others the deal looks significantly less attractive.
Fidelity, one of Twitter’s outside investors, values X’s stake in one of its funds at 70% below its purchase price. According to the source, Fidelity’s stake in X fell in price by about 72% compared to the state at the time of Musk’s purchase of the social network. As a result, the company’s share decreased from approximately $316 million to $88 million.
Image source: washingtonpost.com
According to the Washington Post, the eight largest investors who took part in the deal for Musk to purchase the social network Twitter have so far lost a total of about $5 billion. If we take into account the investments of Elon Musk together with his partners, the amount of lost funds increases to $24 billion. Official representatives investors and Elon Musk refrain from commenting on this issue.
One of the major investors in this deal was Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, who lost about $720 million and expressed dissatisfaction about this. He also said last year that Musk should never have bought Twitter in the first place.