Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44B — and advertisers left within weeks

Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion, the largest leveraged buyout of a tech company. Within weeks, he fired roughly half the company's 7,500 employees, dissolved the trust and safety team, restored previously banned accounts, and renamed the company X.

Advertisers, who accounted for roughly 90% of Twitter's revenue, fled. Major brands including Apple, Disney, IBM and Comcast paused spending, citing concerns about content moderation and brand safety. Musk publicly attacked advertisers at a DealBook conference, telling them to 'go f--- themselves,' which accelerated the exodus.

By mid-2023, X's ad revenue had fallen by more than 50% compared to pre-acquisition levels. The company, loaded with $13 billion in debt from the buyout, was valued by Fidelity at roughly a third of its purchase price. The case illustrated how a platform's value is its community and its advertisers' trust, and how quickly both can be destroyed.