Twitter Says 'Uncertainty' With Elon Musk Is Hurting Its Business

Tesla CEO Elon Musk. PHOTO/COURTESY: CNN
 By CNN

Twitter's battle with Elon Musk is weighing on its business

The company on Friday reported revenue of $1.18 billion (approx. Ksh.140.2b)for the three months ending in June, a decline of 1 percent from the prior year.

Twitter attributed the sales drop in part to "uncertainty" related to Musk's pending acquisition, which he is currently fighting to get out of.

Twitter also said the shrinking sales were due in part to challenges with its advertising business caused by issues in the larger economy, potentially adding to concerns about an advertiser pullback in the social media industry.

Snapchat's parent company on Thursday reported slower than expected revenue growth, which it blamed in part on recession and inflation fears cutting into advertising budgets. Snap stock was down 31.5 percent in premarket trading Friday.

Investors appeared to have a more muted reaction to Twitter's numbers. Shares of Twitter were down about 2 percent in pre-market trading Friday following the report.

While revenue declined, Twitter's user base continued to grow. The company's monetizable daily active users grew more than 16 percent on a yearly basis to 237.8 million during the quarter.

However, Twitter posted a net loss of $270 million (approx. Ksh.32.1b) during the quarter, up from a profit of $66 million (approx. Ksh.7.8b) during the same quarter in the prior year.

The results come after a judge this week ruled that Twitter's case against Musk would go to trial in October, an early win for the social media company, which had requested expedited proceedings.

Musk earlier this month filed to terminate the $44 billion (around Ksh.5.2t) acquisition deal over accusations that Twitter breached the agreement by failing to turn over information related to the number of bot accounts on its platform.

Twitter hit back with a lawsuit alleging that it was Musk who violated the deal and asking a court to force him to complete it.

Due to the pending acquisition by Musk, Twitter did not provide financial guidance for the upcoming quarter nor host an earnings call with Wall Street analysts.

Prior to the dispute between Twitter and Musk, the acquisition had been expected to close before the end of this year.