Twitter’s Revenue Fell About 40% in December

Twitter Inc. reported a drop in revenue and adjusted earnings for the month of December, after many advertisers ditched the social-media platform following Elon Musk’s takeover, according to The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter.

In an update to investors, Twitter reported a decline of about 40% year-over-year in both revenue and adjusted earnings for the month, the people said.

Chief Executive Musk, who completed his acquisition of Twitter last October, is working to stabilize the company’s finances, which also have been challenged by high-cost debt. Twitter is responsible for repaying some $13 billion of debt that helped pay for Mr. Musk’s purchase of the company, with annual interest payments estimated at more than $1 billion.

The company recently made a first interest payment to a group of banks that lent the $13 billion, the people said.

One way that Musk intends to boost Twitter’s revenue is through the sales of paid subscriptions to users, which allows them to edit tweets and access subscriber-only features on the platform. Musk’s new subscription plan relaunched on Dec. 12 after a fumbled initial November rollout.

As a public company in December 2021, Twitter didn’t publicly release monthly financials. For the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31, 2021, Twitter reported $1.57 billion in revenue, with net income of $182 million.

The company recently said some advertisers are returning to the platform. Musk has said that he expects Twitter to break even in 2023. “Twitter still has challenges, but is now trending to breakeven if we keep at it,” he said in a tweet in February.