By Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer
Twitter posted a net loss Tuesday due mostly to a lawsuit settlement, but its revenue rose sharply in the third quarter, boosted by solid ad sales around the globe.
The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that its net loss was $536.8 million, or 67 cents per share, in the July-September quarter. That's down from a profit of $28.7 million, or 4 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.
The loss included a one-time net charge of $766 million from a shareholder lawsuit the company settled. Twitter said last month that it will pay $809.5 million to settle a consolidated class action lawsuit alleging that the company misled investors about how much its user base was growing and how much users interacted with its platform.
Revenue rose 37% to $1.28 billion from $936.2 million.
Analysts, on average, were expecting revenue of $1.29 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.
One big source of worry for investors has been Apple's iOS privacy changes, which dinged rival Snap's quarterly results announced earlier this month. Twitter said while it's still too early to assess the effects of the changes, the impact on the quarter's revenue was "lower than expected."
Twitter said it had 211 million daily active users, on average, in the third quarter, up 13% from a year earlier. Analysts were expecting 211.5 million.
Civil rights groups call on major corporations to stick with DEI programs
A broad group of civil rights organizations called on the CEOs and board members of major companies Thursday to maintain their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that have come under attack online and in lawsuits.
An open letter signed by 19 organizations and directed at the leaders of Fortune 1000 companies said companies that abandon their DEI programs are shirking their fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers and shareholders.
The civil rights groups included the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
"Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies, and practices make business-sense and they're broadly popular among the public, consumers, and employees," their statement read. "But a small, well-funded, and extreme group of right-wing activists is attempting to pressure companies into abandoning their DEI programs."
Companies such as Ford, Lowes, John Deere, Molson Coors and Harley-Davidson recently announced they would pull back on their diversity, equity and inclusion policies after facing pressure from conservative activists who were emboldened by recent victories in the courtroom.
Many major corporations have been examining their diversity programs in the wake of a Supreme Court decision last year that declared race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions unconstitutional. Dozens of cases have been filed making similar arguments about employers. Critics of DEI programs say the initiatives provide benefits to people of one race or sexual orientation while excluding others.
In their letter, the civil rights organizations, which also included... Read More