Elon Musk reportedly valued Twitter at just $20 billion, less than six months after acquiring the social network for $44 billion.

In an email to employees seen by the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Musk told them they would receive an extraordinary reward based on the company’s $20 billion valuation.

He also told staff that Twitter “could be seen as a reverse startup” due to the rapid transformation it has undergone over the past five months. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s net worth has declined by about $100 billion over the same period.

“I see a clear but difficult path to a valuation above $250 billion,” Mr. Musk wrote in an email.

Twitter’s main source of revenue has traditionally been online advertising, but several high-profile advertisers pulled out after Mr. Musk’s controversial takeover of the platform.

Mr. Musk tried to make up for those losses by restarting the Twitter Blue subscription service.

During a Twitter Spaces session in December, Musk said the company’s financial situation forced him to take drastic cost-cutting measures.

“For the last five weeks, I have been cutting costs insanely,” he said. “Now I think Twitter will be fine next year… Generally speaking, cash flow is shrinking.”

Part of these cost-cutting measures included cutting Twitter’s staff from 7,500 to fewer than 2,000.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, The Independent.