Twitter says revenue is growing, but pulls forecasts amid Elon Musk acquisition

Twitter said on Thursday that its first-quarter revenue jumped 16% as it added more users and advertisers, but the social media company added it is pulling “all previously provided goals and outlook” due to its pending acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk. 

Twitter also said it won’t provide forward-looking guidance and that it won’t hold its customary conference call to discuss the quarterly results, again citing the deal with the billionaire and Tesla CEO.

Twitter’s latest financial results show that the company grew its customer and advertiser base prior to Musk’s unsolicited bid, although its revenue of $1.2 billion was slightly shy of analysts’ forecast of $1.23 billion, according to Factset. Twitter, which has struggled to consistently post profits as a public company, said it earned $513 million in the quarter, although that was due to an almost $1 billion gain from the sale of its MoPub unit. 

The company said its number of daily users rose to 229 million, up 16% from the year-ago quarter.

Twitter on Monday agreed to be acquired by Musk in a deal that values the company at $44 billion. While the purchase is expected to close sometime this year, shareholders will have to weigh in, as well as regulators in the U.S. and in countries where Twitter does business. 

For now, few hurdles are expected despite objections from some of Twitter’s own employees, along with users who worry about Musk’s stance on free speech and what it might mean for harassment and hate speech on the platform.

—The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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