It’s bittersweet, as Twitter’s Thursday earnings reports for Q1 2022 could be the last. The company is preparing to change its ownership following a Monday acceptance of Elon Musk’s bid.
If this quarter’s earnings report is any indication of the direction that company will go under Musk it seems like it could only be going up.
First, let’s talk about the bad news. Twitter reported $1.2 billion in revenue for Q1 and missed analysts’ estimates of $1.23 billion. The $1.2 billion reported in Q1 was still a 16% increase over Q4 2021.
However, the numbers that were most in the spotlight were the number mDAUs (monetizable daily users), which can increase or decrease depending on how Musk is perceived by the public as a leader and the direction of Twitter .
The Q1 number was astonishingly 229 million mDAUs. This is an 16% increase over the previous quarter and a 12 million DAUs increase over the last quarter.
Although the earnings report doesn’t include data since Musk bought Twitter (the deal was completed on April 25), one could argue that Musk’s influence over the social media platform during March played an important role in generating interest from users.
Musk created a buzz in March by tweeting about inflation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He also offered his advice on investing cryptocurrency. Vladmir Putin was challenged to a duel. Finally, Musk posted his now famous Twitter poll which asked users whether Twitter supports free speech. This poll started a near month-long rollercoaster that ended with Musk’s purchase.
Analysts and experts had predicted that Twitter’s future would be revealed before Thursday. They also knew that Musk would announce any acquisition talks, particularly if they were in the final stages.
The company stated that Twitter would not host a conference call or issue a shareholder letter in light of the transaction with Musk. We will not provide any forward-looking guidance and have withdrawn all goals and outlooks previously given.
Musk will make Twitter a privately owned company.
The billionaire will purchase the company for $54.20 per shares (around $44 Billion in cash), with the acquisition expected to be completed by 2022.
Twitter opened at $49.01 per Share at the market open on Thursday and rose around 1.73% over a 24-hour period on Thursday afternoon.