Twitter swings to Q2 loss as revenues dip amid deal uncertainty

Twitter said on Friday that it swung to a loss in the second quarter as revenue dipped, with the social media platform highlighting uncertainty surrounding the pending acquisition by Tesla owner Elon Musk.

The company swung to a net loss of $270m from net income of $66m in the same period a year earlier, with revenue down 1% on the year at $1.18bn. Twitter said this reflects advertising industry headwinds associated with the macroenvironment as well as uncertainty related to the pending acquisition by an affiliate of Elon Musk.

Advertising revenue was up just 2% to $1.08bn, while subscription and other revenue came in at $101m, down 27% on the year.

Costs and expenses rose 31% to $1.52bn, with costs related to the pending deal totalling around $33m in the second quarter.

Still, daily active users rose 16.6% compared to the same period a year ago to 237.8m, driven by "ongoing product improvements and global conversation around current events".

Twitter announced in April that it had agreed to be bought by Musk for $54.20 a share in cash. However, since then, Musk has backed out of the deal, arguing that the company failed to provide him with information about the proportion of spam and fake users on its platform.

Twitter is now suing Musk over the $44bn agreement and a trial is set to begin in October.