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Dismal Twitter forecast for next quarter sees stock plunge 10%

As interim CEO in the prior quarter, he delivered a downbeat view of Twitter‘s earnings and criticized its product lineup.

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The social network posted a net loss of $132 million, or 20 cents per share (statement). During the same three-month period past year, Twitter had $361 million in revenue and $7 million in profit. Total active monthly users (MAUs) was expected at 321.3 million, according to the same consensus estimates.

Twitter also reported revenue of $USUS569 million ($790 million) for the quarter, up 58 per cent from $US361 million a year ago.

Dorsey announced plans to give one-third of his Twitter stock (roughly 1 percent of the company) to remaining employees a little over a week later. That’s short of the 324 million Wall Street expected.

Twitter’s stock plunged in after-hours trading on Tuesday after reporting a weak forecast for the fourth quarter and lagging user growth.

The evidence of Twitter’s ongoing malaise reversed a recent rally in Twitter’s stock, which reflected investor optimism of a quick turnaround under Dorsey’s leadership. “We’ve simplified our road map and organization around a few big bets across Twitter, Periscope and Vine that we believe represent our largest opportunities for growth”.

“There’s a potential to make this a whole lot easier”, said Dorsey.

Twitter launched its first-ever television ad campaign during the World Series on Tuesday night in an attempt to solicit new users after a quarter of languishing growth. Last week Dorsey announced he will be giving 40 million shares of his other firm, Square, to a new foundation which makes investments in under-served regions of the world.

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) reported 320 million monthly active users at the end of the quarter, an 11% year over year increase that missed estimates of closer to 321 million.

Twitter faces a long slog getting new users to sign up, its latest earnings report suggests.

Last quarter, when he returned to the helm, Mr Dorsey sent Twitter shares lower after saying that he was not satisfied with user growth and that the product was too complicated to use.

Twitter today released the company’s results for the third-quarter of 2015, revealing that the social media platform is still struggling to find a broader audience as financial loses continue to mount. Dorsey is also imposing more discipline, cutting 8 per cent of the workforce to increase efficiency and hiring an executive chairman from Google to improve the board’s oversight.

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During Twitter’s June second-quarter conference call, Dorsey called out the company’s performance in the face of competition as “unacceptable”.

Twitter CEO gives up $200M in stock for company employees