Social media giant Twitter reported revenue growth of 16 percent to $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2022, marking the social media firm’s first update to investors since Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk struck an agreement to acquire the company for around $44 billion with a formal purchase offer.
Twitter on Thursday also posted quarterly advertising revenue up 23 percent to $1.1 billion. The company’s key subscriber metric, monetizable daily active users, hit 229 million in the quarter, up 16 percent from a year ago. That beat a 226.9 million mDAU estimate from StreetAccount.
Twitter had reached 217 million daily active users at the end of its recent fourth-quarter earnings and before that had reached 211 million DAUs in the third quarter of 2021. In its first quarter 2022 results, Twitter also reported net income at $513 million — including a pretax gain of $970 million, from selling MoPub for $1.05 billion, and an income tax gain — compared to year-earlier net income of $68 million.
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The quarterly results shed little light on how Twitter might be run by Musk. With the pending acquisition, the company said it would cease offering forward-looking guidance and is “withdrawing all previously provided goals and outlook.”
The Tesla mogul revealed an initial 9.1 percent stake in Twitter in early April, which was followed by a formal offer for the company on April 21. After Musk unveiled key financing, Twitter entered direct negotiations that ultimately led to a deal.
Twitter, with a lot on its plate, says the acquisition offer, which could still fall apart, will close this year, pending approval from shareholders and regulatory agencies. Amid a sale that will leave Twitter as a private company, the social media firm chose not to hold a post-earnings analyst call to discuss its results Thursday.
