{"id":1156232,"date":"2022-07-22T16:29:32","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T16:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/07\/22\/twitter-spent-33m-in-three-months-on-musk-deal\/"},"modified":"2022-07-22T16:29:32","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T16:29:32","slug":"twitter-spent-33m-in-three-months-on-musk-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/07\/22\/twitter-spent-33m-in-three-months-on-musk-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter spent $33m in three months on Musk deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"
Twitter Elon Musk \/ Credit: GETTY IMAGES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Twitter spent $33m (\u00a327m) on Elon Musk\u2019s proposed deal to buy the firm between April and June 2022.<\/p>\n

It also said its number of monthly daily users had risen to 237m \u2013 but it reported a net loss of $270m, which was worse than expected.<\/p>\n

Mr Musk has since changed his mind about the purchase, and a\u00a0court date is now set for October\u00a0because Twitter wants to force through the sale.<\/p>\n

There is a $1bn termination fee potentially at stake.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Twitter declined to discuss its\u00a0latest financial results, citing the \u201cpending acquisition\u201d as the reason.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The report covers the period from April to June 2022.<\/p>\n

Twitter has doubled-down on its position on the amount of spam and fake accounts on the platform \u2013 the reason Elon Musk had given for terminating the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the second quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our [monthly active users] during the quarter,\u201d it said \u2013 although it added that the figure was an estimate.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Twitter\u2019s revenue was $5bn (\u00a34.2bn), but in the last 12 months its share price has fallen by 45%.<\/p>\n

Analyst Mike Proulx from the firm Forrester said Twitter was in \u201cpurgatory\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwitter now has an acquirer who no longer wants it, a CEO and board who wants to get rid of it, and an employee base which is caught in the middle of it all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real victim from all this drama is Twitter itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday Snap, which owns Snapchat,\u00a0reported revenue of $1.11bn for the three months to the end of June,\u00a0which missed Wall Street expectations.<\/p>\n

Its shares slumped by more than 25% after the news.<\/p>\n

It said some of its advertisers had cut their spending, faced with rising costs.<\/p>\n

It also said it had been affected by a change made by Apple last year, which meant iPhone and iPad users could opt out of being tracked by apps.<\/p>\n

This has affected the personalisation of ads \u2013 a very valuable service to tech firms \u2013 because they can no longer see their users\u2019 other online activities and tailor advertising accordingly.<\/p>\n

Twitter said its ad revenue had increased by just 2%, to $1.08bn.<\/p>\n

Meta and Google\u2019s parent company, Alphabet, is due to report its earnings next week.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n