Twitter has reported a 40% year-over-year drop in ad revenue and adjusted earnings for December after a flurry of advertisers halted spending.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported Friday that advertisers slashed their spending on Twitter after Elon Musk’s chaotic $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform in late October.
Just a week after taking over the social media giant, Musk lamented the company’s “massive drop in revenue,” which he attributed to “activist groups pressuring advertisers.”
Big-name companies like General Mills, United Airlines and Oreo Mondelez were among firms that pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.
Musk said in December that the company was on track to be “roughly cash flow break-even” in 2023. Twitter made its first interest payment in January on a loan that banks provided to help finance Musk’s purchase.
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In early February, Musk said the prior three months had been “extremely tough” as he “had to save Twitter from bankruptcy” while also running Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk poked fun at himself and Twitter when he referred to it as “the world’s largest non-profit” since it was losing millions of dollars a day.
“Say what you want about me, but I acquired the world’s largest non-profit for $44B lol,” the billionaire tweeted.
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FOX Business has reached out to Musk and Twitter for comment.
FOX Business’ Breck Dumas and Reuters contributed to this report.