BREAKING NEWS: Twitter DOES NOT meet revenue estimates days after Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout
- Twitter reported quarterly revenue of $1.2 billion on Thursday, falling short of expectations
- But its active users grew 16% year over year to 229 million
- It could be one of Twitter’s definitive earnings reports as a public company
- Elon Musk plans to privatize the company in a $44 billion deal
Twitter released what may be its last earnings report as a public company on Thursday, days after it approved billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover bid.
Although Twitter’s user base has increased, the company’s financial results have fallen short of expectations. Some analysts had speculated that Twitter’s board wanted to finalize the sale to Musk before releasing weak earnings.
The social media company said revenue for the first quarter totaled $1.2 billion — a 16 percent increase from a year earlier, but less than the $1.23 billion that analysts estimated Wall Street expected.
San Francisco-based Twitter reported an average of 229 million daily active users in the quarter, up 16 percent year-over-year.
Twitter released one of its latest earnings reports on Thursday, a day after agreeing to sell it to billionaire Elon Musk
Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter was announced earlier this week, and the deal is expected to close later this year.
Twitter has canceled the conference call with executives and industry analysts that normally accompanies the results, meaning there will be little further insight into the company’s current financial position.
“Given the impending acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, we are not making any forward-looking statements and are withdrawing all previously stated goals and outlook,” the company said in a statement.
Twitter shares were up less than 1 percent in premarket trading to $48.81. Musk has agreed to buy the company for $54.20 per share, and the stock price is currently being driven by investors’ views on the likelihood of the deal going through.
Development of the story, more to come.