- Twitter canceled its regular earnings call even though Musk's $44B buyout is months away.
- Sale expected to close this year with delisting a critical component.
- Company will not provide forward-looking guidance and withdrew previously stated goals and outlooks.
- Revenue missed expectations at $1.2B versus $1.23B; EPS 61 cents included MoPub gains; profits $513.3M boosted by a divestiture.
- Reported 229 million mDAUs; corrected prior overcounts from linked account switching; US mDAUs 39.6M, international 189.4M.
Despite the fact that Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout deal is still months away, Twitter cancelled its regular earnings conference call on Thursday.
The sale is expected to close this year, according to the company. Delisting will be a critical component.
Twitter has stated that it will not provide forward-looking guidance. Previously stated goals and outlooks have been withdrawn.
The cancelled call aided Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in avoiding awkward questions about management continuity.
Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of $269.7 billion, has indicated that he would like to use his ownership to make the social media giant more transparent in its algorithms and processes – as well as more open to views from the extreme right and left.
Tweeter’s stock was up about 1% after the markets opened.
According to Refinitiv, the company’s revenue fell short of analysts’ expectations, coming in at $1.2 billion rather than the $1.23 billion expected.
It reported earnings per share of 61 cents, which were not comparable to estimates because they included gains from the sale of MoPub.
Profits of $513.3 million were more than seven times higher than the previous year, thanks to a one-time gain from a divestiture.
Twitter stated that the 229 million mDAUs reported in the quarter represent 15.9% of the total. In the United States, mDAUs increased by 6.4% year on year to 39.6 million.
International mDAUs totaled 189.4 million, an increase of 18.1% over the previous year.
Twitter also corrected previously reported mDAU numbers that overcounted some accounts from the first quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2021. The error was caused by a feature that allows users to easily switch between their various accounts. As a result, whenever the primary account performed an action, all linked accounts were counted as mDAUs.
Musk had attacked Twitter’s policy’mamma’ Vijaya Gadde, who leads efforts to combat bullying, on Wednesday. This drew criticism from women’s groups, a former Twitter CEO, and current executives.
Twitter announced in January that it had completed the sale of MoPub, its mobile ad platform, and AppLovin, a mobile game maker and marketing software provider, for $1.05 billion in cash.
