The company one year, according to internal documents. seen by The New York Times.
Musk paid $54.20 per share to buy Twitter a little over a year ago. The tech billionaire has since said he overpaid for the social network. In March, he wrote in an email to workers that he believed the company was worth $20 billion, calling it “a reverse startup.”
In paperwork for the new stock awards, X said the stock would be offered at $45 per share in the form of restricted stock units, which employees can earn over time. Employees will continue to receive a cash payment of $54.20 for outstanding shares awarded to them under previous management, the company said.
It’s unclear why the stock price hasn’t fallen by the same percentage as the company’s valuation, although X could have altered the number of shares outstanding.
A spokesperson for X did not respond to a request for comment.
In his year as owner of Twitter, Musk has revamped the company and the social media platform. More than 80 percent of its 7,500 employees have resigned or been laid off. The service verification process has changed, as well as content moderation rules. Advertising, the company’s main source of income, fell in the United States by almost 60 percent this summer. Musk also loaded the company with billions of dollars in debt to help pay for the acquisition.
In November, he famously joked about spending money to buy a social media company, asking, “How do you make a small fortune on social media?” Start with a big one.”
Musk has said he remains optimistic about the company’s future. Last week, at a company meeting to celebrate the deal’s first anniversary, he explained how he believed X could serve as a multipurpose app with a variety of features, including dating services and job screening, according to a recording obtained by The Times.
“We’re rapidly transforming the company from something like what it was, Twitter 1.0, to a full-featured everything app where you can basically do whatever you want on our system,” Musk told employees.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, offered her own words of encouragement during the meeting.
“For the people who don’t see our vision yet, the people who don’t see what’s happening here at X, stop giving them that oxygen,” he said. “Don’t pay attention to him.”
