X valued at $19 billion in share plan for workers

Everybody knew that Twitter wasn’t price $44 billion when Elon Musk purchased it a 12 months in the past. Now, we all know what Musk himself thinks it’s price in the present day: $19 billion.

On Monday, staff at X had been awarded fairness within the firm at a valuation of $19 billion, or $45 per share, in accordance with inside paperwork seen by The Verge. That worth is a 55 p.c low cost to Musk’s unique buy worth, per the paperwork, which notice that “the honest market worth per share is set by the Board of Administrators primarily based on quite a lot of elements in a way that complies with relevant tax guidelines.” (Musk is X’s chair and has but to create a proper board.)

Since he took over Twitter, Musk has stated that he needs to mannequin the corporate’s compensation plan after SpaceX, which can be privately held however lets staff recurrently money out a portion of their shares to outdoors traders. The kind of fairness X is giving staff is named restricted inventory models, or RSUs. These RSUs are earned over a interval of 4 years from their grant date and require a “liquidity occasion,” equivalent to an IPO or sale of the corporate, to be taxed as revenue, the interior paperwork clarify. (Fortune first reported that X was valuing itself at $19 billion.)

Till now, staff at X have been working there with out the information of what the corporate is price since Musk purchased it. This inventory award info lastly solutions that query, although it appears that evidently Musk’s valuation should still be too beneficiant; considered one of his massive traders, Constancy, thinks X is price 65 p.c lower than when he purchased it.

I’ll have extra on X’s new inventory plan within the subsequent subject of my publication: