Twitter may be worth one-third what Musk paid for it last fall as Fidelity fund marks down value

Twitter logos hang outside the company's offices in San Francisco, Monday, Dec. 19, 2022. Twitter may now be worth one-third of what Elon Musk paid for the social media platform just seven months ago. 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 billion. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

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

The Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund has reduced the market value of its equity stake in Twitter for a third time, now putting it at $6.55 million. That's down from the nearly $20 million the Fidelity fund valued its stake at in October.

Financial services provider Fidelity Investments is privately held, not public, but is required by the SEC to regularly disclose its holdings. Because Twitter is a private company now called X Holdings Corp., information about its finances can’t be verified.

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.

The billionaire financed the purchase with funds including loans from a group of banks. Musk has said the $44 billion price tag for Twitter was too high but that the company had great potential.

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

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This story has been corrected to show that the Twitter stake was worth $6.55 million, not $6.55 billion, down from $20 million, not $20 billion, and that Fidelity Investments is a private firm, not public.