Even after Apple iPhone changes, Twitter gains, in big relief for Parag Agrawal

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Twitter Inc.’s sales jumped 22% in the fourth quarter, signaling that the social network’s digital advertising business has held up even as changes to Apple iPhone data-collection rules hurt some larger rivals. Sales in the holiday quarter rose to $1.57 billion, compared with the $1.58 billion analysts had predicted. Revenue in the current period will be $1.17 billion to $1.27 billion, Parag Agrawal leTwitter said Thursday in a statement, while the average projection was $1.26 billion. The company added 6 million new users in the fourth quarter, bringing average daily active users to 217 million. That’s up 13% from a year earlier, and was in line with estimates.

The lackluster revenue forecast is due in part to Twitter’s recent sale of ad platform MoPub, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal said. MoPub brought in $281 million in revenue last year, including $51 million during the first quarter. Twitter sold MoPub to AppLovin Corp. for $1.05 billion in cash in a deal that closed on Jan. 1. Employees who were working on MoPub have started developing other advertising products, Segal said.

“We think we can make up some of that in 2022,” he said, referring to the revenue hit. “But we should be able to make up all of it in 2023.” Twitter said it expects full-year revenue growth in the low- to mid-20% range in 2022 excluding MoPub sales. Wall Street analysts on average estimate Twitter’s revenue will increase by 20% in 2022.

Shares of Twitter gained about 5.3% in early trading following the report. The stock has declined 12% so far this year. The company’s board also approved a $4 billion share repurchase authorization, $2 billion of which will be an “accelerated share repurchase,” according to a letter to shareholders.

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