Breakingviews: Twitter CEO’s excuses look like fake news

Published Thu, Feb 9 20173:22 PM EST

Breakingviews

Jennifer Saba

Someone needs to remind Jack Dorsey that brevity is the soul of wit – not to mention of Twitter. The social-media platform chief executive's long-winded excuses about the firm's fourth-quarter earnings could use an edit that cuts to the chase: Sad! The purveyor of 140-character blasts beloved by President Donald Trump posted its slowest year-on-year revenue growth in the last three months of last year since it went public in 2013. Despite political, media, corporate and investor interest in Trump's almost uninterrupted stream of tweets, Twitter eked out only a one percent increase in sales. Its shares slumped 10 percent on Thursday morning More from Breakingviews : Emerging market funds get rare bit of good news Dorsey, who also serves as CEO of online payments firm Square , said that advertising revenue would lag user growth. But Twitter only added four percent more monthly users in the fourth quarter from a year before, topping out at 319 million. Daily active users increased at a faster 11 percent pace but Twitter didn't disclose the number behind this metric, which is preferred by ad buyers. Other companies that share, loosely, a recent focus on the U.S. commander-in-chief, saw public interest repaid with big gains in user numbers. The New York Times, for example, in the fourth quarter reported its strongest increase in digital subscriptions since 2011 – and unlike Twitter, the media company makes users pay. Since Dorsey returned to the CEO job more than a year ago, Twitter has continued to struggle. It couldn't find a willing buyer. Executive departures including the exit of respected chief operating officer Adam Bain have slowed efforts to right the ship. Facebook , Alphabet's Google and Snap are taking advertising share. And the company has been sluggish cleaning up abusive users. A peppy statement saying Twitter has made "significant strides" and is positioned for "long-term sustainable growth and GAAP profitability" isn't supported by the facts. Twitter nearly doubled its loss to $167 million in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. Its $118 million non-GAAP profit in the quarter, conveniently excluding the value of stock handed to employees as compensation and restructuring charges, is in the category of fake news. The board once claimed it wanted a full-time CEO, before accepting Dorsey's part-time commitment. It's becoming clear that if the two-timing boss is really giving Twitter his all, it's not enough. For more independent commentary and analysis from Reuters Breakingviews, visit breakingviews.com

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

The purveyor of 140-character blasts beloved by President Donald Trump posted its slowest year-on-year revenue growth in the last three months of last year since it went public in 2013. Despite political, media, corporate and investor interest in Trump's almost uninterrupted stream of tweets, Twitter eked out only a one percent increase in sales. Its shares slumped 10 percent on Thursday morning