--- description: Twitter posted a net income loss of $221.4 million for the 2021 fiscal year. Here's why Elon Musk may have been willing to pay $44 billion for the platform anyway. title: These Charts Show Why Twitter May Have Appealed to Elon Musk image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bef85682d7dbdc3/698a316316d884b70cc3a9aa/twitter-elon-musk-numbers.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Numbers That May Have Convinced Elon Musk That Twitter Was Worth $44 Billion by [John Simons](/author/john-simons/) and [Lon Tweeten](/author/lon-tweeten/) Apr 28, 2022 8:34 PM CUT  Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on April 26, 2022. Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on April 26, 2022.Amy Osborne—AFP/Getty Images by [John Simons](/author/john-simons/) and [Lon Tweeten](/author/lon-tweeten/) Apr 28, 2022 8:34 PM CUT [Elon Musk](https://time.com/6170696/elon-musk-politics-twitter/ "undefined") is anything but conventional. Typically, when companies (or multi-billionaires) spend boatloads of money on acquisitions, they take their time reviewing internal documents and financial statements that aren’t available to the public—before making their offer to buy. But that’s not how Musk did it. In the lead-up to his momentous [$44 billion deal](https://time.com/6170319/elon-musk-buys-twitter/ "undefined") to buy Twitter, Musk, in the interest of speed, reportedly [waived the opportunity](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-26/twitter-takeover-was-brash-and-fast-with-musk-calling-the-shots "undefined") to do a deep dive into Twitter’s finances. Granted, he says he’s purchasing the social media company not to make more money, but mainly to promote a set of lofty ideals related to [freedom of speech](https://time.com/6167099/twitter-employees-elon-musk-free-speech/ "undefined"). Twitter has enormous global influence and has maintained steady user growth in recent years. But the company’s financial performance has been fairly lackluster recently. For the 2021 fiscal year, it posted a net income loss of $221.4 million, following a much deeper annual loss of $1.14 billion for 2020\. Here’s a look at some of the facts and figures that likely convinced Musk (and his bankers) to pursue the deal anyway. ## Twitter by the Numbers Each day **500 million Tweets** get sent out; some **70% of U.S. Twitter users** say they get news on the platform. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6171871/why-elon-musk-wanted-twitter-in-numbers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6171871/why-elon-musk-wanted-twitter-in-numbers/"},"headline":"The Numbers That May Have Convinced Elon Musk That Twitter Was Worth $44 Billion","datePublished":"2022-04-28T20:34:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:52:40.922Z","description":"Twitter posted a net income loss of $221.4 million for the 2021 fiscal year. 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