After Laying Off 70% Staff, Elon Musk To Offer New Stock Grants To Remaining Twitter Employees

After back-to-back rounds of layoffs that began as soon as he took over Twitter, Elon Musk has now offered the remaining employees stock grants at a valuation of nearly $20 billion, The Information reported citing a person familiar with an email Musk sent to Twitter staff.

The reported valuation is less than half of the $44 billion that Musk paid to acquire the platform, pointing to a drop in Twitter¡¯s value. This move comes after Musk has already fired around 70% of the Twitter workforce since the acquisition in late October last year.

Elon Musk's Mail To Staff

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Twitter CEO Elon Musk, in a note to staff, reportedly said he was optimistic about the social media company¡¯s future. ¡°I see a clear, but difficult, path to a >$250 billion valuation,¡± meaning stock granted now would be worth 10 times more, he said.

Musk also said in the email that Twitter is being reshaped so rapidly that the company ¡°can be thought of as an inverse start-up.¡± He said radical changes have been necessary in part to ensure that Twitter didn¡¯t go bankrupt, according to the email.

In a separate email that was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Twitter told employees it is offering new equity grants to staff that will start to vest after six months.

Twitter plans to offer a liquidity event roughly a year from now, in which employees can cash out some of their equity, the email shows. The number of employees who received the equity grants is yet to be confirmed.

The new stock grants will vest over four years, according to the email, and be in addition to and separate from any legacy Twitter equity that was converted to cash at the time of the acquisition in October 2022, WSJ reported.

Also Read: Steve Davis Likely To Replace Elon Musk As Twitter CEO

What Are Stock Grants?

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A stock grant is an opportunity to purchase stock in the company for which you work. Typically, the grant price is set as the market price at the time the grant is offered. Stock grants are usually offered to employees after they have worked at the company for a set period of time.

Each company decides how its grant program operates, but most of the time, employees must continue to work for the company and cannot exercise their granted options (sell their granted shares) for a set period of time.

Grants are essentially gifts that do not have to be paid back, under most conditions.

Twitter Replies With A Poop Emoji

In response to a request for comment, as per the report, Twitter¡¯s press email responded with a poop emoji, which Musk recently tweeted will be the company¡¯s auto-response for media inquiries.

Earlier Musk said in December that Twitter is on track to be ¡°roughly cash flow break-even¡± in 2023 as top advertisers slashed their spending on the social media platform after the billionaire¡¯s takeover.

Also Read: Timeline Of Elon Musk-Twitter's $44 Billion Deal

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