Elon Musk’s contention in 2022 that he and his fellow investors were overpaying when they bought the social media platform formerly known as Twitter seems to be spot on. Fidelity said the value of its investment in X dwindled by nearly 79%.
Asset managers at Fidelity’s Blue Chip Growth Fund say the value of its investment into X has fallen by 78.7% as of the end of August. The fund invested $19.66 million in the social media company in October 2022. By July of this year, it said its investment was worth $5.5 million. By the end of August, it valued the investment at $4.19 million, according to recent disclosures.
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Musk and his group bought the company for $44 billion and by Fidelity’s math, it’s worth just $9.37 billion as of August 2024.
This isn’t the first time the value of the company has been called into question. In October of last year, X issued stock grants to employees at a price of $45 per share. That put the price at around $19 billion.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal said the $13 billion Musk borrowed to buy the company has become the worst buyout situation for banks since the Great Recession.
When banks loan money for takeovers like this one, they typically sell the debt to other investors so they can collect fees instead of it sitting on their books. But banks haven’t been able to do that with the X debt without taking losses because it isn’t making money.
The Twitter loans have hung longer than similar deals in 2008-2009. Banks call loans stuck on their balance sheets “hung.”
While the Great Recession created more hung loans, banks were generally able to offload the debt within a year, something that hasn’t happened in the case of X, according to analysis from Pitchbook LCD.
Despite Musk saying in October 2022 that he and his other investors were “obviously overpaying for Twitter,” seven banks, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Barclays, still approved the loans.
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But it’s not all downside for the banks involved. They’ve been able to rake in massive amounts of interest off the acquisition. Musk previously said he is paying $1.5 billion per year on those loans, which have significantly higher rates than other loans used for acquisitions.
Tags: Bank of America, Banks, Elon Musk, Great Recession, merger, Twitter, Twitter Blue, Twitter Verification, X
Simone Del Rosario:
It looks like Elon Musk was right about his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
Elon Musk:
“Obviously myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now.”
Simone Del Rosario:
Quite a few people agreed with him at the time, and now it’s being backed up by a respected investment house.
Asset managers at Fidelity’s Blue Chip Growth Fund say the value of its investment into X has fallen by 78.7% as of the end of August.
The fund invested $19.66 million in the social media company in October 2022, when Musk bought it for $44 billion. By July of this year, they said their investment was worth $5.5 million.
But, wait there’s more.
By the end of August 2024, they valued their investment at $4.19 million, according to recent disclosures.
So if we extrapolate the math here…that means X went from being worth $44 billion in October 2022 to $9.37 billion by the end of August 2024.
It’s far from just one investment house raising questions about X’s value. In October of last year, X issued stock grants to employees at a price of $45 per share. That put the price at around $19 billion. So we can see the trend over the past 2 years.
It’s so bad, the Wall Street Journal said the $13 billion Musk borrowed to buy the company has become the worst buyout situation for banks since the Great Recession.
See… generally when banks loan money for takeovers like this one, they sell the debt to other investors so they can collect fees instead of it sitting on their books.
But they haven’t been able to do that with the X debt without taking losses, because it isn’t making money. Banks call loans stuck on their balance sheets “hung.”
According to analysis from PitchBook LCD, the Twitter loans have hung longer than similar deals in 2008-2009. They said while the Great Recession created more hung loans, banks were generally able to offload the debt within a year, something that hasn’t happened in the case of Twitter, er, X.
But if we go back to that earlier statement:
Elon Musk:
“Obviously myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now.”
Simone Del Rosario:
Seven banks, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Barclays, still agreed to underwrite the deal even after that infamous comment.
To a certain extent, that is the luxury of being one of the top 5 richest people on Earth. Banks want to do business with you. But it wasn’t just the good nature of banks to loan the $13 billion. They have been collecting massive amounts of interest off the acquisition. Musk himself has said he is paying $1.5 billion each year on those loans, which have significantly higher rates than other loans of this type.
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