Twitter revealed its second quarter earnings on Tuesday, and on the same day two top executives announced their departures. Though the company was able beat the analysts’ expectations on both the top and bottom lines, its attrition woes continue.
Top executives depart
Todd Jackson, former director of product management, disclosed that he is leaving for Dropbox. Jackson, who joined Twitter a year and a half ago, will be joining Dropbox as its product head, replacing Ilya Fushman, who joined Index Ventures last month. Dropbox has been facing difficulties with its core product lately. Business Insider, citing sources, reports that Dropbox is struggling to grow its core product and that its product department is facing hardships.
“Feeling privileged to have worked @twitter – thanks @kevinweil, @aroetter, @utkarsh and everyone else who makes this place so special,” Jackson tweeted yesterday.
Christian Oestline, former vice president of product management, who had been with Twitter for the last two years, will be joining YouTube. “Thank you @Twitter for an incredible two years. Working with the awesome people at this company has been a highlight of my career,” Oestline tweeted on Tuesday.
User growth issues continue for Twitter
Twitter continues to see the departure of top executives as it struggles with slowing user growth. A few months ago, Dick Costolo announced his departure after being heavily criticized by Wall Street for Twitter’s woes.
Twitter co-founder and interim CEO Jack Dorsey, who took over the post earlier this month, reported his first earnings as a CEO. Though the revenue and earnings numbers topped estimates backed by a rise in advertising revenue, the number of active users came as a disappointment.
For the quarter, the micro-blogging firm posted earnings of 7 cents per share on $502 million in revenue, while analysts expected earnings of 4 cents per share on $481 million in revenue. After the earnings report, shares climbed by around 4% in after-hours trading, but they came down sharply after Chief Financial Officer Anthony Noto warned investors that the firm may not witness “sustained, meaningful” user growth for a “considerable period of time.”
For the quarter, the number of average monthly active users (MAUs) came in at 304 million, up from 12% from last year but just a slight increase from 302 million in the last quarter.
At around 9.45 a.m. Eastern today, Twitter shares were down by almost 12% at $32.25, and year to date, the stock is down by over 10%.
