Twitter Is Hemorrhaging Execs — Is it a Signal To Dump Your Stock?

Budrul Chukrut / SOPA Images / Shutterstock.com

Commitment to Our Readers

GOBankingRates' editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services - our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines and our products and services review methodology.

20 Years
Helping You Live Richer

Reviewed
by Experts

Trusted by
Millions of Readers

If you want evidence of the fickle whims of Wall Street, look no further than Twitter: A few weeks ago the social network’s stock was riding the high of Elon Musk’s buyout offer, but since then it has tanked amid an exodus of executives and speculation that Musk might try to walk away from the deal.

Three more executives left Twitter this week, Bloomberg reported, including two vice presidents. That followed last week’s departure of two other execs. Those leaving this week include Ilya Brown, a VP of product management; Katrina Lane, VP of Twitter Service; and Max Schmeiser, head of data science, according to internal memos described to Bloomberg. All three chose to leave on their own.

That wasn’t the case last week, when a pair of general managers — Kayvon Beykpour and Bruce Falck — were both fired ahead of Musk’s planned takeover.

Those departures have come during a period of hiring freezes and rescinded job offers as Twitter reevaluates its labor costs, Fortune reported. In a letter to employees last week, CEO Parag Agrawal said Twitter was not on track to hit revenue and user growth targets it established in 2021. Those targets included doubling its revenue and having 315 million monetizable daily active users by the end of 2023.

As for the Musk deal: it’s no sure thing. As previously reported by GOBankingRates, Musk tweeted on May 17 that he “cannot move forward” with his planned $44 billion buyout of the social media company unless it can prove that bots make up less than 5% of its users. The Tesla CEO and world’s richest person suggested the actual figure could be 20% or higher. Those comments followed similar comments the week prior suggesting the deal is on hold until Musk gets more information about spam and fake accounts.

Not surprisingly, these developments have done no favors for Twitter’s stock price. Shares were trading near $37 early on May 20 — well below Musk’s purchase price of $54.20 a share reached in late April.

Meanwhile, analysts don’t exactly give a ringing endorsement to the stock. The 36 analysts who follow Twitter have an average “Hold” rating on the stock, according to Yahoo Finance. The vast majority rate it either “Hold” or “Underperform.” Argus Research recently downgraded the stock to “Hold” from “Buy.”

Share this article: