X valued at $19 billion in share plan for employees

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

On Monday, workers at X have been awarded fairness within the firm at a valuation of $19 billion, or $45 per share, in accordance with inner paperwork seen by The Verge. That value is a 55 % low cost to Musk’s unique buy value, per the paperwork, which notice that “the truthful market worth per share is set by the Board of Administrators primarily based on a variety of components 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 desires to mannequin the corporate’s compensation plan after SpaceX, which can be privately held however lets workers recurrently money out a portion of their shares to exterior buyers. The kind of fairness X is giving workers known as restricted inventory items, or RSUs. These RSUs are earned over a interval of 4 years from their grant date and require a “liquidity occasion,” similar to an IPO or sale of the corporate, to be taxed as earnings, the inner paperwork clarify. (Fortune first reported that X was valuing itself at $19 billion.)

Till now, workers at X have been working there with out the information of what the corporate is value since Musk purchased it. This inventory award info lastly solutions that query, although it appears that evidently Musk’s valuation should be too beneficiant; one in every of his massive buyers, Constancy, thinks X is value 65 % lower than when he purchased it.

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