Elon Musk offers Twitter employees $20 billion in stock grants: Report
Elon Musk said changes were necessary to prevent Twitter from going bankrupt.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the employees will receive stock-based awards worth close to $20 billion, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. This is less than half of the $44 billion spent by Musk to buy the social media platform last October.
Musk expressed optimism about the future of social media in a statement to employees. “I see a clear but difficult path to a >$250 billion valuation,”[ads1]; he said, suggesting shares awarded now would be worth ten times more.
In the email reviewed by the outlet, Musk added that Twitter is witnessing changes so quickly to ensure the company “can be considered a reverse startup.” According to the email, he said significant changes were needed in part to prevent Twitter from going bankrupt.
According to a separate email sent to employees on Friday, the company informed its employees that it is providing additional equity grants to employees, which will begin to vest after six months. It further said that the company intends to offer a liquidity arrangement in about a year, where employees will be able to withdraw some of the equity. However, it should be noted that no information was available on the number of employees who will receive equity awards.
Also read: ‘Office is not optional’: Elon Musk emails Twitter staff at 2:30am
Since Mr Musk’s controversial acquisition of the microblogging site last year, employees have had many questions, including questions about compensation. According to former employees, Twitter often provided stock grants as part of employees’ salaries that accrued over time, the outlet noted.
The new grants, which are separate from and in addition to any legacy Twitter stock that was converted to cash at the time of the acquisition in October 2022, will vest over a four-year period, according to the email.
According to regulatory filings, Twitter had spent about $630 million on stock-based compensation in 2021, the last full year it published financial results before going private.
