Twitter shares plummet after disappointing quarterly report


Twitter shares plunged by as much as 10 percent in pre-market trading Thursday after the social media company reported its worst quarterly results since going public in 2013. Twitter reported fourth-quarter revenue of $717 million. Analysts had expected $740 million. The company's adjusted profits did beat sharply lowered estimates, but Twitter also lowered its guidance for the first quarter to $75 million from $95 million, far below Wall Street expectations of $191 million. Twitter executives said the company has worked hard to "bring people back to Twitter" with real-time features. Its user base grew by 4 percent to 319 million, but executives said revenue growth lagged behind audience growth.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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