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WASHINGTON: Disappointing earnings on Friday were attributed to "headwinds" by Twitter, especially the uncertainty brought on by Elon Musk"s erratic takeover effort.

The corporation is embroiled in a court dispute with the volatile Tesla CEO over his attempt to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the platform, which has left the business in a precarious position.

Due to "advertising market headwinds... as well as uncertainty relating to the potential acquisitions of Twitter by an associate of Elon Musk," the firm claimed, Twitter"s $1.18 billion in revenue fell short of forecasts.

Additionally, many businesses like Twitter that largely rely on advertising are experiencing a decline in advertiser expenditures in the present environment of tightening economic conditions and economic turmoil.

Twitter is in the midst of a storm in a rowboat, according to analyst Jasmine Enberg. The "boat was rocked considerably more" by the Musk scandal.

She continued, "Twitter is now in the unfortunate position of persuading marketers that its ad business is solid.

According to Twitter, the number of "monetizable" daily active users—those who can see advertisements—rose by 8.8 million, which was less than analysts had predicted, to reach 237.8 million.

In general, according to analyst Dan Ives, "we would characterise the daily active user stats as better than projected and holding up quite firm in this climate."

Despite the less-than-stellar performance, investors were happy that the news wasn"t worse as Twitter"s shares ended the day up almost 1% at $39.84.

Comparatively, Snap"s shares ended the day down 39% as the parent company of messaging service Snapchat disclosed underwhelming financial results.

The statistics from Twitter only encompass the month of June, excluding Musk"s attempt to "terminate" the agreement in July on the grounds that the company was secretive about its number of false accounts.

The social media platform responded by arguing that the Tesla CEO already agreed to the arrangement and cannot back out at this time. It is a crucial platform for exchanging ideas, news, and entertainment.

Twitter stated in its earnings report that it "believes Mr. Musk"s putative termination is invalid and unjust, and the merger deal remains in place."

Twitter is still operational

Earlier this week, Twitter won its battle with Musk when a court permitted a speedy trial to determine whether to compel the billionaire to finish the takeover.

Musk"s attorneys had requested a start date of February 2023, but the Delaware state court in the east of the US sided with the platform"s need for speed and set an October start date.

Billions of cash are on the line, but Twitter"s survival is also in jeopardy due to Musk"s absolutist attitude that the platform should let any lawful speech, which has raised concerns that it may be used to encourage violence.

Twitter is left with worried employees, hesitant advertisers, and constrained management while the purchase is still up in the air.

As previously reported by AFP, Twitter was "unable to provide advertisers any certainty or confidence" that it would endure to be a safe showcase for them" at an early May marketing event where businesses negotiate significant advertising deals.

"At the occasion, they barely sold anything close to what they usually do. And it"s clearly slowed down since then "said he.
Losing users would be disastrous for the social network situated in San Francisco.

Twitter lost hundreds of millions of dollars in 2020 and 2021, in contrast to large fish like Google and Facebook parent Meta, which control online advertising and generate billions in revenues.

According to eMarketer, the group will only account for 1% of global ad income in 2022 compared to 12.5 % for Facebook, 9% for Instagram, and over 2% for burgeoning upstart TikTok.