(Headline USA) Twitter’s quarterly profit, revenue and the number of daily users on its platform are rising, according to its quarterly report, released days after agreeing to be sold to billionaire Elon Musk.
The optimistic news comes in spite of a full-fledged left-wing meltdown, in which celebrities and radical leftists have threatened to leave the platform for fear of abuse, Democrat politicians have upped their efforts to control free speech, and Twitter executives have shed actual tears over the liberal electric-car magnate’s surprise buyout.
The social media company on Thursday reported net income of $513 million, or 61 cents a share, but that includes a big one-time gain from the sale of its MoPub business, clouding comparisons with the year-ago period.
Revenue rose 16% to $1.2 billion in the three months to March compared with the same period last year, though the company said the figure reflected “headwinds associated with the war in Ukraine,” without elaborating.
Twitter reported an average of 229 million daily active users in the quarter, which was about 14 million more than a revised 214.7 million daily users in the previous quarter.
The San Francisco company canceled a conference call with executives and industry analysts that usually accompanies its results, so there will be little further insight into the company’s current financial condition.
“Given the pending acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, we will not be providing any forward looking guidance, and are withdrawing all previously provided goals and outlook,” Twitter said, in what could be one of its final earnings reports as a public company before Musk acquires it.
Musk, who paid $54.20 for each outstanding share of Twitter, did not speak publicly on the quarterly report from his new company, perhaps among its last as a publicly traded entity.
Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter was announced earlier this week and is expected to close sometime this year. But before the deal is completed, shareholders will have to weigh in, as well as regulators in the U.S. and in countries where Twitter does business.
So far though, few hurdles are expected, despite objections from some of Twitter’s own employees and leftist users who have long enjoyed the ability to post hate speech and disinformation with impunity while rational and fact-based conservative critics were censored.
Amid fears that some of the rogue employees might attempt to sabotage the company, Twitter reportedly has taken steps to bar any interference with its underlying algorithms.
However, prominent conservatives noticed that they were already seeing their followers and engagement boosted after the announcement, suggested some algorithmic manipulation had occurred, whether in good faith or to cover the company’s flagrant bias.
It really is something how conservative accounts are getting massive follower increases today….
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) April 26, 2022
Musk, who also runs the electric car company Tesla, as well as SpaceX and other ventures, says he plans to take Twitter private.
If he does, the company will no longer be beholden to shareholders or publicly report its financial results, which have been mixed at best since the company went public in 2013.
Under its agressively censorious leftist practices, Twitter has struggled to consistently post profits as a public company while generating lackluster revenue growth, despite efforts to push more into the Chinese market.
On one hand, going private could give Twitter more room to experiment while focusing less on short-term profit and its stock price. On the other hand, even the world’s richest man is likely to want the company to make money.
“I think there is nothing better for Twitter than Elon Musk buying it and ideally replacing the board, and also doubling down on investments into products and new revenue-generating sources,” John Meyer, a technology entrepreneur and investor, told The Associated Press earlier this week.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
