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Twitter, Inc. is a U.S.-based social media company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, it originally operated the Twitter microblogging and social networking service (later rebranded to X). As of 2026, it has around 557 million monthly active users, mainly concentrated in North America, Europe and Japan. The company once ran short-video app Vine and live streaming service Periscope, and has experienced major changes including initial public offering, Elon Musk's privatization acquisition, and being merged into X Corp. in 2023.
Key moments
March 2006Concept developed, Jack Dorsey posted the first tweet: "just setting up my twttr"
July 2006Officially launched to the public under the name Twitter
2009Launched verified accounts, retweets and hashtags; played a key role in information dissemination during the 2009 Iranian protests
November 2013Went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange
April 2022Announced agreement to be acquired by Elon Musk for $44 billion
October 2022Completed the $44 billion privatization acquisition by Elon Musk
2023Officially rebranded to X and merged into X Corp., ending independent corporate existence
2023–2025Underwent leadership transition and expanded AI-related business initiatives
Twitter (rebranded to X in 2023) occupies a unique niche in the global social media market, with its competitive landscape as follows:
Meta Platforms' Facebook and Instagram: Leading comprehensive social platforms with larger global user bases, focusing on personal relationship maintenance and diverse daily content sharing, with more mature advertising systems
TikTok: Short-video dominant platform that attracts younger user groups and competes for user daily engagement time
LinkedIn: Professional social network targeting career development and business communication, competing for professional user scenarios
Telegram and WhatsApp: Encrypted instant messaging tools with advantages in private one-on-one and group communication
Twitter, Inc. built one of the most culturally impactful brands in the global social media industry over nearly two decades of operation. As the original creator of the microblogging model that popularized real-time public discourse, the brand carved out an unrivaled niche as a hub for breaking news, celebrity interaction, political conversation, and viral trending content. Even following its 2023 acquisition by Elon Musk, merger into X Corp., and the rebranding of its core service to X, the Twitter brand maintains significant residual awareness and loyalty among global users.
The brand’s strength is shaped by its history of innovation, high-profile leadership changes, and ongoing evolution of its business model. It has consistently outlasted smaller competitors in the real-time social media space, and its impact on global media and politics remains unmatched for a platform of its scale. While recent organizational changes have created uncertainty around its brand direction, the legacy Twitter brand still commands significant attention and mind share globally.
Advertisers and users continue to associate the Twitter brand with openness and immediacy, core attributes that have defined its identity since launch. Despite shifts in user growth and advertiser spending in recent years, the brand’s unique positioning keeps it relevant across multiple stakeholder groups.
Brand leadership
Score: 65/100
Twitter once held clear leadership in the real-time public social media segment, with no competitor matching its reach for breaking news and public discourse. Recent ownership changes and brand repositioning have eroded some of its leadership position, but it still retains a leading role in global public conversation, outranking most niche alternatives for real-time information sharing.
User-brand interaction
Score: 78/100
The Twitter brand fosters extremely high levels of active user engagement, with millions of users posting, sharing, and interacting with content daily. Even after the rebranding of the core service to X, many long-time users maintain strong emotional connections to the original Twitter brand, continuing to reference the brand name in daily conversation and content sharing.
Brand momentum
Score: 45/100
The brand has faced negative momentum following its 2023 privatization and ownership transition, with declines in advertiser confidence and some user migration to competing platforms. While new product updates under the X brand have attracted some new users, the legacy Twitter brand has not seen significant positive growth momentum in recent years, resulting in a moderate low score.
Brand stability
Score: 50/100
Frequent leadership changes, policy shifts, and ownership transitions have created significant volatility for the Twitter brand over the past five years. While the core brand identity remains recognizable to most users, inconsistent business strategy and messaging have weakened its brand stability relative to more established social media peers.
Brand age equity
Score: 82/100
Founded in 2006, the Twitter brand has nearly 20 years of history in the social media industry, giving it strong brand recognition and residual equity built over almost two decades of cultural impact. Its long-standing presence has allowed it to embed itself in global media and popular culture, contributing to a high score for age-related brand equity.
Industry profile
Score: 88/100
The Twitter brand is one of the most high-profile brands in the global technology and social media industry, regularly featured in mainstream news coverage, and its trends and content shape broader media and political agendas globally. It has defined an entire category of microblogging and real-time social interaction, giving it an extremely strong industry profile among both industry insiders and the general public.
Global brand reach
Score: 72/100
Twitter built a diverse global user base over its operation, with significant user concentrations in North America, Europe, and Japan, and growing penetration in emerging markets across Latin America and Southeast Asia. While it faces stronger local competition in some large markets such as China and India, it still maintains a broad global footprint with users in nearly every country worldwide, resulting in a solid score for globalization.
Artificial intelligence can support structured reasoning around brand value assessment for legacy social media brands like Twitter, Inc. Any brand value figures generated through analytical reasoning are illustrative only, and do not constitute official audited brand value results. To obtain verified, audited brand value data for Twitter, Inc., please contact World Brand Lab directly.
Jack Dorsey
Noah Glass
Biz Stone
Evan Williams
hq location city
San Francisco, California
hq location country
United States
area served
Worldwide
services
Twitter (rebranded to X)
Vine (discontinued)
Periscope (discontinued)
revenue
US$5.1 billion
revenue year
2021
operating income
US$−493 million
income year
2021
net income
US$−221 million
net income year
2021
assets
US$14.1 billion
assets year
2021
equity
US$7.3 billion
equity year
2021
num employees
c. 1,000
num employees year
2023
footnotes
‡R2R‡‡R3R‡‡R4R‡
Twitter, Inc. was an American social media company based in San Francisco, California, which operated and was named for its flagship social media network of the same name prior to its rebrand as X.In addition to Twitter, the company previously operated the Vine short video app and Periscope livestreaming service.In April 2023, Twitter merged with X Holdings[5] and ceased to be an independent company, becoming a part of X Corp.[6]
Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 and was later launched on July of the same year.By 2012, more than 100 million users tweeted 340 million tweets a day.[7] The company went public in November 2013.By 2019, Twitter had more than 330 million monthly active users.[8]
On April 25, 2022, Twitter agreed to a $44 billion buyout by Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, one of the biggest deals to turn a company private.[9][10] On July 8, Musk terminated the deal.[11] Twitter's shares fell,[12] leading company officials to sue Musk in Delaware's Court of Chancery on July 12.[13] On October 4, Musk announced his intention to purchase the company as he had agreed, for $44 billion, or $54.20 a share;[14]
Following Musk's takeover, Twitter was criticized for an increase in hate speech,[15] systemic prioritization of right-wing content and the removal of the feature to report tweets for spreading misinformation.[16][17][18] His acquisition of the company has been characterized by large-scale policy changes, mass layoffs and resignations, and a dramatic shift in the company's work culture.
History
2006–2007: Creation and initial reaction
Twitter's origins lie in a "daylong brainstorming session" held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo.Jack Dorsey, then an undergraduate student at New York University, introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group.[19][20] Work on the project started in February 2006.Dorsey published the first Twitter message on March 21, 2006, at 12:50 p.m. PST (UTC−08:00): "just setting up my twttr".[21] The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as an internal service for Odeo employees.[22] The full version was introduced publicly on July 15, 2006.[23]
Services
Twitter
Twitter was an American social networking service that was rebranded as X in 2023.Users could share concise text messages, images, and videos through "tweets" and engage with other users' content via likes or "retweets".[118]
Vine
On October 5, 2012, Twitter acquired a video clip company called Vine that launched in January 2013.[119][120] Twitter released Vine as a standalone app that allows users to create and share six-second looping video clips on January 24, 2013.Vine videos shared on Twitter are visible directly in users' Twitter feeds.[121]
Acquisitions
On April 11, 2010, Twitter acquired Atebits, developers of the Twitter client Tweetie for the Mac and iPhone.[138]
On January 28, 2013, Twitter acquired Crashlytics in order to build out its mobile developer products.[129] On August 28, 2013, Twitter acquired Trendrr,[139] followed by the acquisition of MoPub on September 9, 2013.[140]
On June 4, 2014, Twitter announced that it would acquire Namo Media, a technology firm specializing in "native advertising" for mobile devices.[141]
Leadership
As chief executive officer, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of capital funding by the venture capitalists who backed the company.[158] On October 16, 2008,[159] Williams took over the role of CEO, and Dorsey became chairman of the board.[160] On October 4, 2010, Williams announced that he was stepping down as CEO.Dick Costolo, formerly Twitter's chief operating officer, became CEO.On October 4, 2010, Williams made an announcement saying that he will stay with the company and "be completely focused on product strategy".[161][162]
According to The New York Times, "Mr. Dorsey and Mr. Costolo forged a close relationship" when Williams was away.[163]
Finances
For the fiscal year 2021, the last fiscal before Twitter was taken private, the company reported a loss of 221 million, with an annual revenue of $5.1 billion. Since its IPO, Twitter made profit in only two of the eight years.[181]
Funding
Twitter raised over US$57 million from venture capitalist growth funding, although exact figures are not publicly disclosed.Twitter's first A round of funding was for an undisclosed amount that is rumored to have been between US$1 million and US$5 million.[191] Its second B round of funding in 2008 was for US$22 million[192] and its third C round of funding in 2009 was for US$35 million from Institutional Venture Partners and Benchmark Capital along with an undisclosed amount from other investors including Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, and Insight Venture Partners.[191]
, Dorsey, and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo, together with its assets—including Odeo.com and Twitter.com—from the investors and shareholders.
The tipping point for Twitter's popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference.During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.[27] "The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages," remarked Newsweek's Steven Levy."Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it."[28] Reaction at the conference was highly positive.Blogger Scott Beale said that Twitter was "absolutely ruling" SXSWi.Social software researcher danah boyd said Twitter was "owning" the conference.[29]
2007–2022: Growth
In April 2012, Twitter announced that it was opening an office in Detroit, with the aim of working with automotive brands and advertising agencies.[30] Twitter also expanded its office in Dublin.[31] Twitter hit 100 million monthly active users in September 2011.On December 18, 2012, Twitter announced it had surpassed 200 million monthly active users.[32]
The company had its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on November 7, 2013.[33]
In September 2016, Twitter shares rose 20% after a report that it had received takeover approaches.[34] Potential buyers were Alphabet (the parent company of Google),[34]Microsoft,[35][36][37]Salesforce.com,[34][38]Verizon,[38] and The Walt Disney Company.[39][40] Twitter's board of directors were open to a deal, which could have come by the end of 2016.[34][41] However, no deal was made, with reports in October stating that all the potential buyers dropped out partly due to concerns over abuse and harassment on the service.[42][43][44] In 2017, Twitter revamped its dashboard to improve the new user experience[45][46] and Stone came up with a purpose statement for the company: "Twitter exists to serve the public conversation".[47]
In April 2021, Twitter announced that it was establishing its African headquarters in Ghana.[48][49]
In January 2022, Twitter finalized the sale of MoPub to AppLovin.The deal was first announced in October 2021, and the selling price was reported at $1.05 billion.[50]
2022 and 2023
Acquisition by Elon Musk
Businessman Elon Musk revealed that he had bought 9.1% of Twitter for $2.64 billion on April 4, 2022.[51][52][53] In response, Twitter's stock rose by as much as 27% and Twitter shares experienced the largest intraday surge since Twitter's IPO in 2013.[54] Musk was appointed to Twitter's board on April 9, under a deal that prohibited him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company.[52][55][56]
Musk made an unsolicited offer on April 14 to acquire Twitter for $44 billion and take the company private.[57] Publicly, Musk expressed that his offer was motivated by concerns with how the company was managed, emphasizing his concern that policies he described as censorship were leading to a lack of free speech on the platform.[58][59] Twitter's board introduced a "poison pill" strategy on April 15, which would allow shareholders to buy additional stock should a hostile takeover occur as a means to block Musk's takeover.[60] On April 20, Musk secured $46.5 billion in funding as a tender offer, which the board accepted on April 25.[61][62][63]
On July 8, Musk announced he was unilaterally terminating the proposed acquisition, claiming in a regulatory filing that Twitter was in "material breach" of several parts of the agreement by refusing to comply with Musk's requests for spambot account data and dismissing high-ranking employees.[64][65] In response, Twitter board chairBret Taylor pledged to pursue legal action against Musk at the Delaware Court of Chancery with the goal of completing the acquisition.[66][67] On July 12, Twitter opened a lawsuit against Musk to force the sale to proceed.[68] On September 13, 2022, Twitter shareholders voted to approve Elon Musk's takeover of the company.[69]
On October 4, 2022, it was reported that Musk offered to proceed with the deal at the original offer price of $54.20 per share.[70][71] The deal closed on October 27, 2022, with the merger between Twitter, Inc. and X Holdings II, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I, Inc., wholly owned by Musk,[72] and Musk took control of the company,[73] paying $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion.
By January 2023, Twitter only had around 2,300 employees left, according to Musk, with only 550 working full-time.[74][75][76][77] By April, there were less than 1,500 active employees left[78] with 80% of Twitter's work force gone within a year.[79]
Post-acquisition
On October 28, immediately following Musk's acquisition, he fired CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal.[80] Twitter's stock was suspended from trading prior to the New York Stock Exchange opening the next day and was delisted on November 8.[81][82] On October 31, Musk announced in a security filing that he had dissolved the board of directors and would serve as the CEO of the company.[83] In January 2023, he also fired an employee who criticized him.[84]
On November 4, Twitter laid off about half of its 7,500 employees,[85] leaving several internal departments, including communication and core engineering teams, understaffed.
Acquisition by Elon Musk
Businessman Elon Musk revealed that he had bought 9.1% of Twitter for $2.64 billion on April 4, 2022.[51][52][53] In response, Twitter's stock rose by as much as 27% and Twitter shares experienced the largest intraday surge since Twitter's IPO in 2013.[54] Musk was appointed to Twitter's board on April 9, under a deal that prohibited him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company.[52][55][56]
Musk made an unsolicited offer on April 14 to acquire Twitter for $44 billion and take the company private.[57] Publicly, Musk expressed that his offer was motivated by concerns with how the company was managed, emphasizing his concern that policies he described as censorship were leading to a lack of free speech on the platform.[58][59] Twitter's board introduced a "poison pill" strategy on April 15, which would allow shareholders to buy additional stock should a hostile takeover occur as a means to block Musk's takeover.[60] On April 20, Musk secured $46.5 billion in funding as a tender offer, which the board accepted on April 25.[61][62][63]
On July 8, Musk announced he was unilaterally terminating the proposed acquisition, claiming in a regulatory filing that Twitter was in "material breach" of several parts of the agreement by refusing to comply with Musk's requests for spambot account data and dismissing high-ranking employees.[64][65] In response, Twitter board chairBret Taylor pledged to pursue legal action against Musk at the Delaware Court of Chancery with the goal of completing the acquisition.[66][67] On July 12, Twitter opened a lawsuit against Musk to force the sale to proceed.[68] On September 13, 2022, Twitter shareholders voted to approve Elon Musk's takeover of the company.[69]
On October 4, 2022, it was reported that Musk offered to proceed with the deal at the original offer price of $54.20 per share.[70][71] The deal closed on October 27, 2022, with the merger between Twitter, Inc. and X Holdings II, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I, Inc., wholly owned by Musk,[72] and Musk took control of the company,[73] paying $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion.
By January 2023, Twitter only had around 2,300 employees left, according to Musk, with only 550 working full-time.[74][75][76][77] By April, there were less than 1,500 active employees left[78] with 80% of Twitter's work force gone within a year.[79]
Post-acquisition
On October 28, immediately following Musk's acquisition, he fired CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal.[80] Twitter's stock was suspended from trading prior to the New York Stock Exchange opening the next day and was delisted on November 8.[81][82] On October 31, Musk announced in a security filing that he had dissolved the board of directors and would serve as the CEO of the company.[83] In January 2023, he also fired an employee who criticized him.[84]
On November 4, Twitter laid off about half of its 7,500 employees,[85] leaving several internal departments, including communication and core engineering teams, understaffed.[86] Some of the employees were later asked to return, with Twitter stating that they were "laid off by mistake".[87] Several current and former Twitter employees sued the company for violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 due to failures to provide a 60-day notice prior to mass firings.[88][89]
Top security, compliance, content moderation, and sales executives resigned due to Musk stating that employees must either work longer hours or resign from the company.[90] On November 16, Musk issued an "ultimatum" to all remaining Twitter employees warning that workers could expect "long, intense hours of work" if they decided to stay, a decision that was ordered to be made by the following day, with news sources reporting numerous employees leaving on the same day.[91][92][93]The Verge reported that multiple critical engineering teams "completely or near-total[ly] resigned", increasing internal fears of a collapse of Twitter.[94]
Within a week of Musk's acquisition and subsequent internal instability of the firm, including layoffs of Twitter's trust and safety teams, large advertisers including General Mills, Pfizer, Volkswagen, and General Motors announced an advertising pause.[95]Advertising agencies, including IPG and Omnicom Media Group, advised clients to pause ad spending on Twitter temporarily until the platform can sufficiently assure brand safety concerns.[96] Apprehension over increased hate speech made advertisers leave in large numbers.Impersonator accounts had increased following errors in the blue tick scheme for verified users causing concerns.[97] Musk said Twitter was experiencing "a massive drop in revenue" causing losses of $4 million per day, which he attributed to "activist groups pressuring advertisers," adding that "nothing is working" to lure advertisers back.[98]
According to a November 2022 report from Media Matters for America, Twitter had lost half of its top 100 advertisers, which spent $750 million on ads in 2022.[99] Advertising research firm Standard Media Index said advertiser spending on Twitter declined 55% in November year-on-year, and declined 71% in December, despite those holiday months typically seeing higher ad spending.[100]
By December 2022, Musk's family office privately sought to sell new shares valued at his original acquisition price of $54.20, amid turmoil among users and advertisers, and debt payments approaching.Musk's money manager wrote to investors that in recent weeks the family office had received "numerous inbound requests to invest in Twitter."[101][102] The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2023 that talks had been held to raise up to $3 billion to pay down some of the $13 billion in bank debt incurred in the deal, which includes a $3 billion high interest rate bridge loan.Musk denied the report, saying, "corpo media shills clearly have their marching orders to write hit pieces on me these days."[103][104] The Journal reported in October 2023 that the seven major banks that provided the $13 billion loan had been unable to follow the standard practice of quickly selling down their exposure to other banks, due to a lack of appetite for the debt since Musk took over.The banks expected to mark down the debt by at least 15% in order to sell it.[105]
In April 2023, Twitter, now under the ownership of Musk, designated National Public Radio as "US state-affiliated media",[106][107] a label "that's typically been reserved for foreign media outlets that represent the official views of the government, like Russia's RT and China's Xinhua."[108][109][110] This move by Twitter sparked a controversy and accusations of pro-Republican bias.[111][112][113]
Twitter, Inc. was merged with X Corp. in April 2023.[115][116] X Corp. itself was merged with Musk's startup xAI in March 2025, nearly 2 years later.[117]
On October 27, 2016, Twitter announced that it would disable all
On January 20, 2017, Twitter launched an Internet archive of all Vine videos that had ever been published.
The archive was officially discontinued in April 2019.[124]
Periscope
On March 13, 2015, Twitter announced its acquisition of Periscope, an app that allowed live streaming of video.[125] Periscope was launched on March 26, 2015.[126] Due to declining usage, product realignment, and high maintenance costs the service was discontinued on March 31, 2021.[127] However, past Periscope videos can still be watched via Twitter and most of its core features are now incorporated into the app.[128]
Crashlytics and Fabric
Twitter acquired Crashlytics, a crash reporting tool for developers, on January 28, 2013, for over US$100 million, its largest acquisition at the time.[129] Twitter committed to continue supporting and expanding the service.[130]
In October 2014, Twitter announced Fabric, a suite of mobile developer tools built around Crashlytics.[131] Fabric brought together Crashlytics, Answers (mobile app analytics), Beta (mobile app distribution), Digits (mobile app identity and authentication services), MoPub, and TwitterKit (login with Twitter and Tweet display functionality) into a single, modular SDK, allowing developers to pick and choose which features they needed while guaranteeing ease of installation and compatibility. By building Fabric on top of Crashlytics, Twitter was able to take advantage of Crashlytics' large adoption and device footprint to rapidly scale usage of MoPub and TwitterKit. Fabric reached active distribution across 1 billion mobile devices just 8 months after its launch.[132]
In early 2016, Twitter announced that Fabric was installed on more than 2 billion active devices and used by more than 225,000 developers. Fabric is recognized as the #1 most popular crash reporting and also the #1 mobile analytics solution among the top 200 iOS apps, beating out Google Analytics, Flurry, and Mixpanel.[133][134] In January 2017, Google acquired Fabric from Twitter and later integrated it into their Firebase platform.[135][136]
Revue
Revue was a service which lets writers create email newsletters and offer free or paid subscriptions to them. Revue was founded in the Netherlands in 2015 and acquired by Twitter on January 26, 2021. On December 14, 2022, Twitter announced the service would be discontinued on January 18, 2023, at which point all user data would be deleted.[137]
On June 19, 2014, Twitter announced that it had reached an undisclosed deal to buy SnappyTV, a service that helps edit and share video from television broadcasts.
In July 2014, Twitter announced that it intended to buy a young company called CardSpring for an undisclosed sum.
CardSpring enabled retailers to offer online shoppers coupons that they could automatically sync to their credit cards in order to receive discounts when they shopped in physical stores.[145] On July 31, 2014, Twitter announced that it had acquired a small password-security startup called Mitro.[146] On October 29, 2014, Twitter announced a new partnership with IBM.
The partnership was intended to help businesses use Twitter data to understand their customers, businesses and other trends.[147]
On February 11, 2015, Twitter announced that it had acquired Niche, an advertising network for social media stars, founded by Rob Fishman and Darren Lachtman.[148] The acquisition price was reportedly $50 million.[149] Twitter announced that it had acquired TellApart, a commerce ads tech firm, with $532 million stock.[150][151] In June 2016, Twitter [152] acquired an artificial intelligence startup called Magic Pony for $150 million.[153][154]
On January 26, 2021, Twitter acquired Revue, an email newsletter service to compete with platforms like Substack.[155]
In November and December 2021, Twitter acquired and immediately shut down two competitors: threader.app, a service to transform Twitter threads into accessible web pages, and Quill, a messaging service.[156] Threader.app users were directed to instead purchase the Twitter Blue service, which at the time was available only in some countries.[157]
According to
PC Magazine
, Williams was "no longer involved in the day-to-day goings on at the company".
He was focused on developing a new startup, and became a member of Twitter's board of directors, and promised to "help in any way [he could]."[164] Dorsey rejoined Twitter in March 2011, as executive chairman focusing on product development.
At that time, he split his schedule with Square (where he is CEO), whose offices are within walking distance of Twitter's in San Francisco.[163]
In September 2011, board members and investors Fred Wilson and Bijan Sabet resigned from Twitter's board of directors.[165] In October 2012, Twitter announced it had hired former Google executive Matt Derella to become their new director of business agency development.[166] Twitter named former Goldman Sachs executive Anthony Noto as the company's CFO in July 2014, with an "annual salary of $250,000 and one-time restricted stock options of 1.5 million shares ... valued at $61.5 million".[167] On June 10, 2015, Twitter announced its CEO Dick Costolo would resign on July 1, 2015.[168] Noto was said to be considered a potential replacement for outgoing CEO Costolo.[169] On October 14, 2015, former Google chief business officer Omid Kordestani became executive chairman, replacing Dorsey who remains CEO.[170] On January 26, 2016, Leslie Berland, former executive vice president of global advertising, marketing, and digital partnerships at American Express, was named chief marketing officer.[171] In November 2016, COO Adam Bain announced his resignation and CFO Anthony Noto took over Bain's role.[172][173] A month later, on December 20, 2016, CTO Adam Messinger announced that he too was leaving.[174][175]
In February 2020, it was reported that Elliott Management Corporation had acquired a stake in Twitter, with activist shareholder and Republican Party supporter Paul Singer expected to seek the removal of Dorsey as CEO.[176] Twitter agreed to appoint a new independent director and two new board members, and to perform $2 billion in share buybacks.[177]
On November 29, 2021, Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO. He was replaced by CTO Parag Agrawal.[178][179] On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk closed a deal to purchase the company and fired Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett.[180] Musk replaced the prior board as the sole director of Twitter and appointed himself as the CEO.[83]
The company raised US$200 million in new venture capital in December 2010, at a valuation of approximately US$3.7 billion.[193] In August 2010 Twitter announced a "significant" investment led by Digital Sky Technologies that, at US$800 million, was reported to be the largest venture round in history.[194] In December 2011, the Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal invested US$300 million in Twitter.The company was valued at US$8.4 billion at the time.[195]
Stock launch and tax issues
On September 12, 2013, Twitter announced that it had filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ahead of a planned stock market listing.[196] It revealed its prospectus in an 800-page filing.[197] Twitter planned to raise US$1 billion as the basis for its stock market debut.[198] The initial public offering (IPO) filing states that "200,000,000+ monthly active users" access Twitter and "500,000,000+ tweets per day" are posted.[199][200] In an October 15, 2013, amendment to their SEC S-1 filing,[201] Twitter declared that they would list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), quashing speculation that their stock would trade on the NASDAQ exchange.This decision was widely viewed to be a reaction to the botched initial public offering of Facebook.[202] On November 6, 2013, 70 million shares[203] were priced at US$26 and issued by lead underwriter Goldman Sachs.[204]
On November 7, 2013, the first day of trading on the NYSE, Twitter shares opened at $26.00 and closed at US$44.90, giving the company a valuation of around US$31 billion.[205] Consequently, executives and early investors marginally increased their capital, including co-founders Williams and Dorsey who received a sum of US$2.56 billion and US$1.05 billion respectively, while Costolo's payment was US$345 million.[206] On February 5, 2014, Twitter published its first results as a public company, showing a net loss of $511 million in the fourth quarter of 2013.[207]
In November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Twitter is among the corporations that avoided paying taxes by using offshore companies.[208] Later The New York Times reported that Russian-American billionaire Yuri Milner had strong Kremlin backing for his investments in Facebook and Twitter.[209]
Top security, compliance, content moderation, and sales executives resigned due to Musk stating that employees must either work longer hours or resign from the company.[90] On November 16, Musk issued an "ultimatum" to all remaining Twitter employees warning that workers could expect "long, intense hours of work" if they decided to stay, a decision that was ordered to be made by the following day, with news sources reporting numerous employees leaving on the same day.[91][92][93]The Verge reported that multiple critical engineering teams "completely or near-total[ly] resigned", increasing internal fears of a collapse of Twitter.[94]
Within a week of Musk's acquisition and subsequent internal instability of the firm, including layoffs of Twitter's trust and safety teams, large advertisers including General Mills, Pfizer, Volkswagen, and General Motors announced an advertising pause.[95]Advertising agencies, including IPG and Omnicom Media Group, advised clients to pause ad spending on Twitter temporarily until the platform can sufficiently assure brand safety concerns.[96] Apprehension over increased hate speech made advertisers leave in large numbers.Impersonator accounts had increased following errors in the blue tick scheme for verified users causing concerns.[97] Musk said Twitter was experiencing "a massive drop in revenue" causing losses of $4 million per day, which he attributed to "activist groups pressuring advertisers," adding that "nothing is working" to lure advertisers back.[98]
According to a November 2022 report from Media Matters for America, Twitter had lost half of its top 100 advertisers, which spent $750 million on ads in 2022.[99] Advertising research firm Standard Media Index said advertiser spending on Twitter declined 55% in November year-on-year, and declined 71% in December, despite those holiday months typically seeing higher ad spending.[100]
By December 2022, Musk's family office privately sought to sell new shares valued at his original acquisition price of $54.20, amid turmoil among users and advertisers, and debt payments approaching.Musk's money manager wrote to investors that in recent weeks the family office had received "numerous inbound requests to invest in Twitter."[101][102] The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2023 that talks had been held to raise up to $3 billion to pay down some of the $13 billion in bank debt incurred in the deal, which includes a $3 billion high interest rate bridge loan.Musk denied the report, saying, "corpo media shills clearly have their marching orders to write hit pieces on me these days."[103][104] The Journal reported in October 2023 that the seven major banks that provided the $13 billion loan had been unable to follow the standard practice of quickly selling down their exposure to other banks, due to a lack of appetite for the debt since Musk took over.The banks expected to mark down the debt by at least 15% in order to sell it.[105]
In April 2023, Twitter, now under the ownership of Musk, designated National Public Radio as "US state-affiliated media",[106][107] a label "that's typically been reserved for foreign media outlets that represent the official views of the government, like Russia's RT and China's Xinhua."[108][109][110] This move by Twitter sparked a controversy and accusations of pro-Republican bias.[111][112][113] In a statement to Variety, NPR president and CEO John Lansing condemned the decision.[114]
Twitter, Inc. was merged with X Corp. in April 2023.[115][116] X Corp. itself was merged with Musk's startup xAI in March 2025, nearly 2 years later.[117]
In a statement to
Variety
, NPR president and CEO John Lansing condemned the decision.
