£20bn wiped off value of Twitter

TWITTER has shed over half its value since Elon Musk bought the firm.

The tycoon suggested to staff that the social media group is worth just £16bn – around £20bn less than the £36bn he paid in October.

Musk, 51, who has given himself the title ‘Chief Twit’, has said he was ‘obviously overpaying’ for Twitter.

Reports suggest more than 500 major advertisers have paused their spending on the site since Musk ( pictured) bought it, with daily revenues 40pc lower than they were a year ago.

Musk, who also runs electric car maker Tesla and SpaceX, told staff that Twitter should be looked at as an ‘inverse start-up’ as he tries to rebrand the company, saying: ‘Twitter is being reshaped rapidly.’

He defended his decision to lay off large swathes of employees, saying the ‘radical changes’ to the social media company were necessary to save money, according to reports from tech site The Information.

Twitter sacked over half its 7,000-strong workforce just days after the South Africanborn billionaire took over.

Dan Ives, tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, said: ‘Musk knew he was way overpaying for Twitter but once he looked under the hood it was much worse than feared.’