Sign in or join
or
Join us
Didn't receive confirmation?
Thanks for registering. Please click on the confirm link in the email we just sent you.
Continue
Reset password
Resend confirmation
Post as Guest
+
Be part of the collaborative process!

Add a note by highlighting text or Replying to an existing note.

Okay
+
Be part of the collaborative process!

Add a note by highlighting text or Replying to an existing note.

Okay
Document

Exhibit 99.1
Twitter Q2 2020 Shareholder Letter
San Francisco, CA
July 23, 2020
Except as otherwise stated, all financial results discussed below are presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America, or GAAP. As supplemental information, we have provided certain non-GAAP financial measures in this letter’s supplemental tables, and such supplemental tables include a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to our GAAP results. All growth rates referenced below are year over year unless otherwise indicated. The sum of individual metrics may not always equal total amounts indicated due to rounding.
_______
Last week, Twitter suffered a very public and disappointing security issue. We moved quickly to address what happened, and have taken additional steps to improve resiliency against targeted social engineering attempts, implemented numerous safeguards to improve the security of our internal systems, and are working with law enforcement as they conduct their investigations.
We understand our responsibilities and are committed to earning the trust of all of our stakeholders with our every action, including how we address this security issue. We will continue to be transparent in sharing our learnings and remediations.
Highlights
Average monetizable DAU (mDAU) grew 34% year over year to 186 million, driven by global conversation around current events and ongoing product improvements.
We have completed our ad server rebuild and are making progress accelerating our performance ads roadmap beginning with Mobile Application Promotion (MAP), including closing the acquisition of CrossInstall.
Revenue was $683 million in Q2, down 19% year over year, reflecting moderate recovery in advertising demand relative to the last three weeks of March. Total costs and expenses grew 5% year over year to $807 million, as we continue to balance targeted headcount growth with further reducing lower priority investments, resulting in an operating loss of $124 million.
Average monetizable DAU (mDAU) grew 34% year over year to 186 million, driven by global conversation around current events and ongoing product improvements.
Growth in mDAU continued to accelerate in Q2, with average mDAU of 186 million, up 34%. This marks the highest quarterly year-over-year growth rate we’ve delivered since we began reporting mDAU growth. Growth continued to be broad-based, with double-digit growth rates in all top 10 markets. We grew US mDAU by 24% and international mDAU by 37%.
The year-over-year increase in mDAU was primarily driven by external factors, such as continued shelter-in-place requirements for many people, and increased global conversation around the COVID-19 pandemic and other current events. Our work to serve the conversation around COVID-19, to help people find trusted sources of information, to better organize and surface the many topics and interests that bring people to Twitter, and innovations such as virtual watch parties for movie launches and virtual concerts helped us serve our larger audience. We also continue to benefit from ongoing product improvements, including continued increases in relevance of notifications, Search, Explore, and the Home timeline. We believe that mDAU growth in Q2 would still have been strong in the absence of external factors due to the ongoing benefit of these product improvements.
1


On a sequential basis, average mDAU increased by 20 million. Audience and engagement surged in the last few weeks of Q1 as the COVID-19 pandemic became global and we maintained this larger audience in Q2. The elevated usage of our service presents a tremendous opportunity to serve the public conversation and to be where even more people go to see what’s happening. The increases in new and reactivating accounts, as well as increased activity among our existing mDAU, give us confidence in our ability to deliver value to people at critical moments in society regardless of their prior engagement on Twitter, and we will continue to work hard to earn Twitter’s role in their daily lives.
One of our main goals is to make it easier for people to find what they are looking for when they come to Twitter by better organizing content around topics and interests. We grew the number of Topics people can follow to more than 4,100, with more news and location-based topics and improved quality. The number of accounts following Topics reached 50 million by the end of the quarter. We also launched a set of features to help people discover Lists (a curated group of Twitter accounts) related to their interests.
Another important goal is to make it easier to follow and participate in conversations. We’re experimenting with giving people the ability to Tweet with their voice, and providing people controls that allow them to choose who can reply to their Tweets. We expanded our Fleets experiment to three more markets in Q2, providing people in Italy, India, and South Korea with a new way to share their fleeting thoughts through text, images, and videos. We also launched the ability to easily see all Retweets with comments for any Tweet.
While many sports and live entertainment events have been delayed or canceled, we’re continuing to innovate to amplify conversations around digital movie and TV launches and virtual concerts. We held successful virtual watch parties for ESPN’s #TheLastDance (a 10-part docuseries that profiled Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls' journey to their 1997-98 NBA Finals championship) with live post-episode shows on Twitter featuring "The Last Dance" director, Jason Hehir. The view parties sparked over 11 million Tweets and the live shows had over 8 million views.
We collaborated with Global Citizen to live-stream the #TogetherAtHome concert that supported the World Health Organization, which featured performances from top musical artists, stories from frontline workers, and insights from health experts, and generated over 10 million views, over 2.2 million Tweets, and opportunities for brands to connect with what’s happening. We also partnered with the PGA Tour on a “Twitter Multicast” during the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge to showcase athletes, celebrities, and other personalities with their own Twitter live stream and commentary in conjunction with PGA TOUR LIVE Featured Groups coverage to celebrate the return of golf.
Health continues to be an important priority for the company, with our work centered on reducing abuse, combating misinformation, and protecting the integrity of civic-related conversations. We’re refining our prediction models and launching additional proactive detection and remediation tools to reduce abuse and hate speech. We remain focused on detecting, verifying, and annotating misleading information, as well as measuring the impressions of misleading information on Twitter. We stepped up our annotation of Tweets that fell under our misleading information policies and our internal models estimate that these efforts prevented 68 million unannotated impressions that would have occurred had we not intervened.
As a part of our health work, we aggressively targeted misinformation and toxic or abusive content relating to COVID-19. During Q2, we shipped over 40 automations and tooling improvements to support COVID-19 content review. Since introducing our COVID-19 coverage, we have removed approximately 15,000 Tweets and challenged 4.5 million accounts. Over 160 million people have visited the COVID-19 curated page over 2 billion times in aggregate.
2


We have completed our ad server rebuild and are making progress accelerating our performance ads roadmap beginning with Mobile Application Promotion (MAP), including closing the acquisition of CrossInstall.
During Q2, we completed our ad server rebuild, which re-architects and modernizes our ad server to support faster product development, increase stability, and help us scale our advertising business. We are already seeing significant benefits, including an overall increase in development velocity and more predictable delivery of feature improvements. The ad server rebuild improves the state of our systems and reinforces the foundation of our ad business.
As we discussed last quarter, we see a path to driving more direct response advertising on Twitter in 2020 and beyond. An improved MAP and more direct response ad formats could increase our addressable market and diversify our customer base, with more access to advertising demand that may be more resilient through an economic downturn, while building on our strengths in helping brands launch something new and connect with what’s happening.
We made progress on our direct response roadmap in Q2, including improving measurement, prediction, data tools, and updated formats for advertisers. We have completed our first MAP pilot and recently launched a second pilot to test portions of our improved offering with a few advertisers. In Q2 we began rolling out an advanced mobile measurement program which shares non-EU/UK device-level data with MAP advertisers to better measure their Twitter campaigns. We have improved our prediction and ad ranking models for MAP and are seeing early improvements in app installs. We ran a series of experiments to enhance the user experience of App Cards and increase ad engagement.
We also launched the beta of our Video Carousel Card, an ad format with 2-6 horizontally swipeable images or videos that drive people to an app or website. Carousels are a key component of the ad formats portfolio needed for us to drive better performance, and ultimately succeed at MAP and other direct response objectives. Early test results have been positive, with average clickthrough rates up more than 60% and installs per impressions up more than 30% relative to a single-image control.
Our acquisition of CrossInstall will accelerate key work streams in direct response. CrossInstall brings approximately 60 performance ads-focused people to Twitter to strengthen our team, adds a successful and performant demand-side platform (DSP) to Twitter, and should also help us with our strategy to build MAP/performance products. In addition, CrossInstall will help us increase the value MoPub offers to mobile app developers.
We are also in the early stages of exploring additional potential revenue product opportunities to complement our advertising business. These may include subscriptions and other approaches, and although our exploration is very early and we do not expect any revenue attributable to these opportunities in 2020, you may see tests or hear us talk more about them as our work progresses.
Revenue was $683 million in Q2, down 19% year over year, reflecting moderate recovery in advertising demand relative to the last three weeks of March. Total costs and expenses grew 5% year over year to $807 million, as we continue to balance targeted headcount growth with further reducing lower priority investments, resulting in an operating loss of $124 million.
Please see below for a detailed discussion of our Q2 financial and operational results.
3


Q2 2020 FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL DETAIL
Revenue
Total revenue was $683 million in Q2, down 19% or 18% on a constant currency basis, due to a decline in advertising revenue across most markets. US revenue was $365 million, a decrease of 20%. Total international revenue was $319 million, a decrease of 18% or 17% on a constant currency basis. Japan, our second largest market, had revenue of $108 million, down 19%.
Total advertising revenue was $562 million, a decrease of 23% or 22% on a constant currency basis. We previously noted that in Q1, widespread economic disruption and a significant decrease in global advertising spend as a result of the pandemic led to a 27% decline in advertising revenue in the last three weeks of March. We saw a gradual, moderate recovery relative to March levels throughout most of Q2, with the exception of late May to mid-June, when many brands slowed or paused spend in reaction to US civil unrest. During the last three weeks of June, advertising revenue declined 15% year over year. Demand gradually improved once brands returned after the protests subsided.
Key results to note:
By region, US advertising revenue totaled $283 million, a decrease of 25%, reflecting brand spending pauses related to the pandemic and US civil unrest. International ad revenue was $279 million, down 20%. International markets typically have a higher mix of revenue from direct response products, which overall performed better in Q2. We did see strength in certain markets in Asia, some of which grew on a year-over-year basis, driven by MAP campaigns, product launches, and some return of economic activity contributing to revenue.
By product, video ad formats declined year over year but continued to be the majority of our ad revenue in Q2. We saw a mix shift from brand-oriented ad formats to direct response products such as website clicks and MAP. When Tencent in Japan launched its flagship mobile game Code: Dragon Blood in April, it turned to Twitter first. Tencent leveraged Twitter's full-funnel launch solutions, including First View and Promoted Trends, to drive conversations and downloads of Dragon Blood. At launch, Dragon Blood was the #1 trending topic on Twitter in Japan, and the massive conversation on Twitter propelled Dragon Blood to become the most downloaded new mobile game for April in Japan.
By sales channel, large to mid-tier customers continue to represent a sizable majority of our advertising revenue. Brands have found innovative ways to join in on the conversation and connect with their customers despite the pandemic. For example, PlayStation leveraged an 89% global increase in video game conversation on Twitter in late Q1 to build interest and awareness for the PlayStation 5 console. Its successful takeover campaign, consisting of a Branded Emoji, a Promoted Trend Spotlight, and First View, resulted in Playstation being the number one global trend with over 1 million mentions over two days in June and a 4X higher engagement rate than the industry benchmark.
Our self-serve channel for small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) remains relatively small, but we’ve had success in identifying and growing advertising dollars with many SMB advertisers. This remains a significant opportunity for Twitter which requires product and engineering work that we can now better resource with our ad server rebuild complete and the reordering of our objectives.
Data licensing and other revenue totaled $121 million, an increase of 6% after a strong first half of renewals from many of our largest Data and Enterprise Solutions (DES) customers. We continue to expect this growth to moderate over the course of 2020.
Advertising Metrics
Total ad engagements increased 3%, resulting primarily from audience growth offset by a mix shift to ad formats with lower clickthrough rates.
Cost per engagement (CPE) decreased 25%, driven by like-for-like price decreases across most ad formats and lower demand. As a reminder, CPE is an output of our ads auction process, and will vary from one period to another based on geographic performance, auction dynamics, the strength of demand for various ad formats, and campaign objectives.
4


Expenses
Total costs and expenses (which include cost of revenue and all operating expenses) grew to $807 million in Q2. Expense growth of 5% was lower than growth in the low teens we expected at the beginning of the quarter and reflects decisions we have made to reduce spending, continued cost savings from restricted business operations, and some of the challenges of growing headcount and investing in our objectives in the current environment. As we continue to adapt our operations and improve and increase hiring, we intend to continue investing in our most important work. We believe total costs and expenses will increase 10% or more year over year in Q3.
By function:
Cost of revenue grew 4% to $288 million, primarily driven by infrastructure-related expenses, higher personnel-related costs, and higher traffic acquisition costs, offset by a decrease in revenue share expenses.
Research and development expenses grew 36% to $216 million, primarily due to higher personnel-related costs as we continue to focus our investments on engineering, product, and design, and higher allocated facilities and supporting overhead expenses.
Sales and marketing expenses decreased 14% to $207 million, primarily due to reduced marketing campaigns, customer events, and travel.
General and administrative expenses grew 9% to $96 million, primarily due to higher personnel-related costs, offset by higher facilities and supporting overhead expenses allocated to other functions.
Stock-based compensation (SBC) expense grew 40% to $133 million and was approximately 19% of total revenue compared to 12% in the prior quarter. As a reminder, stock-based compensation expense is closely tied to headcount, timing of grants, and vesting. Due to these factors, we expect to recognize more SBC expense in Q2 relative to other quarters in 2020. We ended Q2 with more than 5,200 employees worldwide, including approximately 60 from the CrossInstall acquisition.
We incurred an operating loss of $124 million, or -18% of total revenue, compared to operating income of $76 million or 9% for the same period in 2019. The decrease in year-over-year operating income is primarily due to lower revenue and higher personnel-related costs.
In Q2 2019, we established a $1.1 billion deferred tax asset and recognized an income tax benefit. In Q2 2020, we recognized a deferred tax asset valuation allowance of $1.1 billion and a non-cash income tax expense based primarily on cumulative taxable losses driven primarily by COVID-19. This valuation allowance would be reversed in the event, and to the extent, that it is more likely than not that there will be sufficient taxable income to realize the tax benefit. Depending on the extent and severity of COVID-19’s impact, we could have an additional valuation allowance against deferred tax assets in a future period.
As a result of the valuation allowance, we incurred a net loss of $1.2 billion in Q2, representing a net margin of -180% and diluted EPS of ($1.56). Excluding the impact of the income tax expense due to the establishment of the valuation allowance, Q2 adjusted net loss was $127 million, representing an adjusted net margin of -19% and adjusted diluted EPS of ($0.16).
This compares to net income of $1.1 billion, representing a net margin of 133% and diluted EPS of $1.43 in the same period of the previous year. Excluding the income tax benefit related to the establishment of the deferred tax asset mentioned above, adjusted net income was $37 million, adjusted net margin was 4%, and adjusted diluted EPS was $0.05 in the same period of the previous year.
Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows
We ended the quarter with approximately $7.8 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. Net cash provided by operating activities in the quarter was $201 million, a decrease from $339 million in the same period last year. Capital expenditures totaled $162 million, compared to $135 million in the same period last year, driven by investments we are making in our infrastructure to support audience growth and product innovation. We intend to increase capex in absolute dollars sequentially in Q3. The increase will allow us to address our near-term capacity needs and continue our buildout of a new data center, contingent on improvements in the IT supply chain. Adjusted free cash flow was $39 million, compared to $204 million in the same period last year. We did not repurchase any of our shares in Q2.
5


Monetizable Daily Active Usage
Growth in mDAU continued to accelerate in Q2, with average mDAU of 186 million, up 34%. This marks the highest quarterly year-over-year growth rate we’ve delivered since we began reporting mDAU growth, and follows a 24% year-over-year growth rate in Q1. Growth continues to be broad-based, with double-digit growth rates in all top 10 markets. We grew US mDAU by 24% and international mDAU by 37%.
By region:
Average US mDAU was 36 million for Q2, compared to 29 million in the same period of the previous year and compared to 33 million in Q1.
Average international mDAU was 150 million for Q2, compared to 110 million in the same period of the previous year and compared to 133 million in Q1.
For more information regarding the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this letter, please see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.
Appendix
Second Quarter 2020 Webcast and Conference Call Details
Twitter will host a conference call today, Thursday, July 23, 2020, at 5am Pacific Time (8am Eastern Time) to discuss financial results for the second quarter of 2020. The company will be following the conversation about the earnings announcement on Twitter. To have your questions considered during the Q&A, Tweet your question to @TwitterIR using $TWTR. To listen to a live audio webcast, please visit the company’s Investor Relations page at investor.twitterinc.com. Twitter has used, and intends to continue to use, its Investor Relations website and the Twitter accounts of @jack, @nedsegal, @Twitter, and @TwitterIR as means of disclosing material nonpublic information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.
Third Quarter Earnings Release Details
Twitter expects to release financial results for the third quarter of 2020 on October 29, 2020, before the market opens at approximately 4am Pacific Time (7am Eastern Time). On the same day, Twitter will host a conference call to discuss those financial results at 5am Pacific Time (8am Eastern Time).
About Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR)
Twitter is what's happening in the world and what people are talking about right now. From breaking news and entertainment to sports, politics, and everyday interests, see every side of the story. Join the open conversation. Watch live-streaming events. Available in more than 40 languages around the world, the service can be accessed via twitter.com, an array of mobile devices, and SMS. For more information, please visit about.twitter.com, follow @Twitter, and download both the Twitter and Periscope apps at twitter.com/download and periscope.tv.
6


A Note About Metrics
Twitter defines monetizable daily active usage or users (mDAU) as people, organizations, or other accounts who logged in or were otherwise authenticated and accessed Twitter on any given day through twitter.com or Twitter applications that are able to show ads. Average mDAU for a period represents the number of mDAU on each day of such period divided by the number of days for such period. Changes in mDAU are a measure of changes in the size of our daily logged in or otherwise authenticated active total accounts. To calculate the year-over-year change in mDAU, we subtract the average mDAU for the three months ended in the previous year from the average mDAU for the same three months ended in the current year and divide the result by the average mDAU for the three months ended in the previous year. Additionally, our calculation of mDAU is not based on any standardized industry methodology and is not necessarily calculated in the same manner or comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Similarly, our measures of mDAU growth and engagement may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology.
The numbers of mDAU presented in our earnings materials are based on internal company data. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage and engagement across our large number of total accounts around the world. Furthermore, our metrics may be impacted by our information quality efforts, which are our overall efforts to reduce malicious activity on the service, inclusive of spam, malicious automation, and fake accounts. For example, there are a number of false or spam accounts in existence on our platform. We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the second quarter of 2020 represented fewer than 5% of our mDAU during the quarter. The false or spam accounts for a period represents the average of false or spam accounts in the samples during each monthly analysis period during the quarter. In making this determination, we applied significant judgment, so our estimation of false or spam accounts may not accurately represent the actual number of such accounts, and the actual number of false or spam accounts could be higher than we have estimated. We are continually seeking to improve our ability to estimate the total number of spam accounts and eliminate them from the calculation of our mDAU, and have made improvements in our spam detection capabilities that have resulted in the suspension of a large number of spam, malicious automation, and fake accounts. We intend to continue to make such improvements. After we determine an account is spam, malicious automation, or fake, we stop counting it in our mDAU, or other related metrics. We also treat multiple accounts held by a single person or organization as multiple mDAU because we permit people and organizations to have more than one account. Additionally, some accounts used by organizations are used by many people within the organization. As such, the calculations of our mDAU may not accurately reflect the actual number of people or organizations using our platform.
In addition, geographic location data collected for purposes of reporting the geographic location of our mDAU is based on the IP address or phone number associated with the account when an account is initially registered on Twitter. The IP address or phone number may not always accurately reflect a person’s actual location at the time they engaged with our platform. For example, someone accessing Twitter from the location of the proxy server that the person connects to rather than from the person’s actual location.
We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy.
7


Forward-Looking Statements
This letter to shareholders contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Twitter's future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates,” “going to,” "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Twitter's expectations, strategy, priorities, plans, or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this letter to shareholders include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Twitter’s future financial and operating performance, including its outlook and guidance, and strategies to improve financial and operating performance; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related responses of businesses and governments to the pandemic on Twitter’s operations and personnel, on commercial activity and advertiser demand across Twitter’s platform, and on Twitter’s operating results, as well as on worldwide and regional economies; Twitter’s anticipated strategies, and product and business plans, and its priorities, product initiatives, and product development plans, including actions and disclosures regarding security, the expected benefits of the full ad server rebuild, next-generation MAP and direct response ad format efforts, and the acquisition of CrossInstall; Twitter’s expectations and strategies regarding the growth of its revenue, including the drivers of such growth, audience, and engagement (including, in each case, any potential impact of COVID-19), advertiser base and spending, headcount growth targets, and allocation of resources; Twitter’s expectations regarding future capital expenditures and other expenses, including its SBC expense and the timing of such expense; and Twitter’s expectations regarding future tax matters. Twitter's expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks include the possibility that: the COVID-19 pandemic and related impacts will continue to adversely impact our business, financial condition, and operating results and the achievement of our strategic objectives, as well as the markets in which we operate and worldwide and regional economies; Twitter's total accounts and engagement do not grow or decline; Twitter’s strategies, priorities, or plans take longer to execute than anticipated; Twitter's new products and product features do not meet expectations and fail to drive mDAU growth; advertisers continue to reduce or discontinue their spending on Twitter; data partners reduce or discontinue their purchases of data licenses from Twitter; and Twitter experiences expenses that exceed its expectations. The forward-looking statements contained in this letter to shareholders are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Twitter's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2020, each filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional information will also be set forth in Twitter's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2020. The forward-looking statements in this letter to shareholders are based on information available to Twitter as of the date hereof, and Twitter disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
8


Non-GAAP Financial Measures
To supplement Twitter's financial information presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America, or GAAP, Twitter considers certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, including revenues excluding foreign exchange effect, which we refer to as on a constant currency basis, non-GAAP income before income taxes, non-GAAP provision (benefit) for income taxes, non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP costs and expenses, adjusted net income (loss), adjusted net margin, adjusted diluted net income (loss) per share, and adjusted free cash flow. In order to present revenues on a constant currency basis for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2020, Twitter translated the applicable measure using the prior year's monthly exchange rates for its settlement currencies other than the US dollar. Twitter defines non-GAAP income before income taxes as income (loss) before income taxes adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets, non-cash interest expense related to convertible notes, non-cash expense related to acquisitions, impairment (gain) on investments in privately held companies, restructuring charges, and one-time nonrecurring gain, if any; Twitter defines non-GAAP provision (benefit) for income taxes as the current and deferred income tax expense commensurate with the non-GAAP measure of profitability using the estimated annual effective tax rate, which is dependent on the jurisdictional mix of earnings; and Twitter defines non-GAAP net income (loss) as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets, non-cash interest expense related to convertible notes, non-cash expense related to acquisitions, impairment (gain) on investments in privately held companies, restructuring charges, and one-time nonrecurring gain, if any, and adjustment to income tax expense based on the non-GAAP measure of profitability using the estimated annual effective tax rate, which is dependent on the jurisdictional mix of earnings. Non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share is calculated by dividing non-GAAP net income (loss) by non-GAAP diluted share count. Non-GAAP diluted share count is GAAP basic share count plus potential common stock instruments such as stock options, RSUs, shares to be purchased under employee stock purchase plan, unvested restricted stock, the conversion feature of convertible senior notes, and warrants. Twitter defines adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization expense, interest and other expense, net, provision (benefit) for income taxes, restructuring charges, and one-time nonrecurring gain, if any. Twitter defines non-GAAP costs and expenses as total costs and expenses adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets, non-cash expense related to acquisitions, restructuring charges, and one-time nonrecurring gain, if any. We have presented adjusted net income (loss) solely to exclude the income tax benefit from the establishment of deferred tax assets related to intra-entity transfers of intangible assets in the three and six months ended June 30, 2019, and the income tax provision from the establishment of a valuation allowance against the deferred tax assets in the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, and no other adjustments were made in the calculation of this measure. Adjusted net margin is calculated by dividing adjusted net income (loss) by GAAP revenue. Adjusted diluted net income (loss) per share is calculated by dividing adjusted net income (loss) by GAAP diluted share count. Adjusted free cash flow is GAAP net cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures (i.e., purchases of property and equipment including equipment purchases that were financed through finance leases, less proceeds received from the disposition of property and equipment).
Twitter is presenting these non-GAAP financial measures to assist investors in seeing Twitter's operating results through the eyes of management, and because it believes that these measures provide an additional tool for investors to use in comparing Twitter's core business operating results over multiple periods with other companies in its industry.
9


Twitter believes that revenues on a constant currency basis, non-GAAP income before income taxes, non-GAAP provision (benefit) for income taxes, non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP costs and expenses, adjusted net income (loss), adjusted net margin, and adjusted diluted net income (loss) per share provide useful information about its operating results, enhance the overall understanding of Twitter's past performance and future prospects, and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by Twitter's management in its financial and operational decision-making. Twitter uses these measures to establish budgets and operational goals for managing its business and evaluating its performance. Twitter believes that revenues on a constant currency basis is a useful metric that facilitates comparison to its historical performance. Twitter believes that non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP costs and expenses, adjusted net income (loss), adjusted net margin, and adjusted diluted net income (loss) per share help identify underlying trends in its business that could otherwise be masked by expenses and one-time gains or charges that it excludes in non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP costs and expenses, adjusted net income (loss), adjusted net margin, and adjusted diluted net income (loss) per share, or the effects of the income tax benefits related to the establishment of deferred tax assets and the tax provisions from the establishment of a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets described above, which are non-operating benefits and expenses. In addition, Twitter believes that adjusted free cash flow provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash from operations and that it is typically a more conservative measure of cash flows. However, adjusted free cash flow does not necessarily represent funds available for discretionary use and is not necessarily a measure of its ability to fund its cash needs.
These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures are not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP and are not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies.

Contacts
Investors: Press:
Cherryl Valenzuela Giovanna Falbo
ir@twitter.com press@twitter.com

10


TWITTER, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(In thousands)
(Unaudited)

June 30, 2020 December 31, 2019
Assets    
Current assets:    
Cash and cash equivalents $ 3,112,454    $ 1,799,082   
Short-term investments 4,653,560    4,839,970   
Accounts receivable, net 600,777    850,184   
Prepaid expenses and other current assets 128,496    130,839   
Total current assets 8,495,287    7,620,075   
Property and equipment, net 1,142,601    1,031,781   
Operating lease right-of-use assets 640,202    697,095   
Intangible assets, net 64,347    55,106   
Goodwill 1,284,325    1,256,699   
Deferred tax assets, net 786,290    1,908,086   
Other assets 134,535    134,547   
Total assets $ 12,547,587    $ 12,703,389   
Liabilities and stockholders’ equity    
Current liabilities:    
Accounts payable $ 162,160    $ 161,148   
Accrued and other current liabilities 383,981    500,893   
Operating lease liabilities, short-term 137,718    146,959   
Finance lease liabilities, short-term 7,248    23,476   
Total current liabilities 691,107    832,476   
Convertible notes, long-term 2,734,867    1,816,833   
Senior notes, long-term 692,489    691,967   
Operating lease liabilities, long-term 560,461    609,245   
Deferred and other long-term tax liabilities, net 26,579    24,170   
Other long-term liabilities 34,029    24,312   
Total liabilities 4,739,532    3,999,003   
Stockholders’ equity:    
Common stock    
Additional paid-in capital 9,127,495    8,763,330   
Accumulated other comprehensive loss (93,000)   (70,534)  
Retained earnings (accumulated deficit)
(1,226,444)   11,586   
Total stockholders’ equity 7,808,055    8,704,386   
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 12,547,587    $ 12,703,389   

11


TWITTER, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(In thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)

Three Months Ended
June 30,
Six Months Ended
June 30,
  2020 2019 2020 2019
Revenue $ 683,438    $ 841,381    $ 1,491,075    $ 1,628,271   
Costs and expenses
Cost of revenue 288,039    277,965    572,076    541,976   
Research and development 215,806    159,242    416,194    305,488   
Sales and marketing 207,286    240,249    428,573    446,048   
General and administrative 96,237    88,239    205,605    165,415   
Total costs and expenses 807,368    765,695    1,622,448    1,458,927   
Income (loss) from operations (123,930)   75,686    (131,373)   169,344   
Interest expense (39,828)   (38,317)   (73,098)   (75,577)  
Interest income 25,013    42,887    57,910    83,428   
Other income (expense), net (361)   7,523    (8,080)   7,087   
Income (loss) before income taxes (139,106)   87,779    (154,641)   184,282   
Provision (benefit) for income taxes
1,088,899    (1,031,781)   1,081,760    (1,126,082)  
Net income (loss)
$ (1,228,005)   $ 1,119,560    $ (1,236,401)   $ 1,310,364   
Net income (loss) per share:
Basic $ (1.56)   $ 1.46    $ (1.58)   $ 1.71   
Diluted $ (1.56)   $ 1.43    $ (1.58)   $ 1.68   
Weighted-average shares used to compute net income (loss) per share:
Basic 785,909    768,755    783,303    766,658   
Diluted 785,909    785,056    783,303    781,378   

12


TWITTER, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(In thousands)
(Unaudited)

Three Months Ended
June 30,
Six Months Ended
June 30,
  2020 2019 2020 2019
Cash flows from operating activities        
Net income (loss) $ (1,228,005)   $ 1,119,560    $ (1,236,401)   $ 1,310,364   
Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided by operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization expense 123,837    115,616    244,486    229,090   
Stock-based compensation expense 132,876    94,615    230,779    178,106   
Amortization of discount on convertible notes 26,556    31,910    48,060    62,787   
Bad debt expense 3,428    736    17,495    1,363   
Deferred income taxes (19,013)   48,325    (26,037)   62,689   
Deferred tax assets establishment related to intra-entity transfers of intangible assets —    (1,082,460)   —    (1,206,880)  
Deferred tax assets valuation allowance establishment 1,101,374    —    1,101,374    —   
Impairment of investments in privately-held companies 500    1,550    8,503    1,550   
Other adjustments 3,240    (22,912)   (5,185)   (19,466)  
Changes in assets and liabilities, net of assets acquired and liabilities assumed from acquisitions:
Accounts receivable 65,349    (36,396)   234,281    67,237   
Prepaid expenses and other assets 9,209    6,737    2,957    (2,547)  
Operating lease right-of-use assets 39,368    33,741    78,117    69,174   
Accounts payable (11,754)   8,139    (26,234)   (4,740)  
Accrued and other liabilities (6,257)   49,278    (145,425)   1,281   
Operating lease liabilities (39,692)   (29,466)   (78,987)   (59,342)  
Net cash provided by operating activities 201,016    338,973    447,783    690,666   
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchases of property and equipment (164,416)   (135,795)   (287,083)   (218,821)  
Proceeds from sales of property and equipment 2,282    1,101    3,905    3,057   
Purchases of marketable securities (1,889,234)   (1,356,779)   (3,122,764)   (2,991,921)  
Proceeds from maturities of marketable securities 1,355,500    1,057,638    2,481,134    2,768,938   
Proceeds from sales of marketable securities 136,416    28,941    858,669    63,299   
Business combinations, net of cash acquired (19,505)   (20,302)   (34,285)   (20,302)  
Other investing activities —    11,368    (12,389)   11,368   
Net cash used in investing activities (578,957)   (413,828)   (112,813)   (384,382)  
Cash flows from financing activities
Proceeds from issuance of convertible notes —    —    1,000,000    —   
Debt issuance costs —    —    (14,662)   —   
Taxes paid related to net share settlement of equity awards (2,925)   (3,461)   (14,618)   (12,938)  
Payments of finance lease obligations (6,490)   (18,214)   (16,456)   (37,933)  
Proceeds from exercise of stock options 118    414    423    509   
Proceeds from issuances of common stock under employee stock purchase plan 34,395    25,209    34,395    25,209   
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities 25,098    3,948    989,082    (25,153)  
Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (352,843)   (70,907)   1,324,052    281,131   
Foreign exchange effect on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (3,830)   7,148    (15,778)   7,002   
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period 3,492,613    2,273,767    1,827,666    1,921,875   
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period $ 3,135,940    $ 2,210,008    $ 3,135,940    $ 2,210,008   
Supplemental disclosures of non-cash investing and financing activities
Common stock issued in connection with acquisitions $ —    $ —    $ 1,312    $ —   
Changes in accrued property and equipment purchases $ 1,737    $ 33,891    $ 40,249    $ 77,611   
Reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash as shown in the consolidated statements of cash flows
Cash and cash equivalents $ 3,112,454    $ 2,183,111    $ 3,112,454    $ 2,183,111   
Restricted cash included in prepaid expenses and other current assets 2,900    1,379    2,900    1,379   
Restricted cash included in other assets 20,586    25,518    20,586    25,518   
Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash $ 3,135,940    $ 2,210,008    $ 3,135,940    $ 2,210,008   

13


TWITTER, INC.
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES
(In thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)

  Three Months Ended Six Months Ended
  June 30, June 30,
  2020 2019 2020 2019
Non-GAAP net income (loss) and net income (loss) per share:        
Net income (loss)
$ (1,228,005)   $ 1,119,560    $ (1,236,401)   $ 1,310,364   
Exclude: Provision (benefit) for income taxes
1,088,899    (1,031,781)   1,081,760    (1,126,082)  
Income (loss) before income taxes (139,106)   87,779    (154,641)   184,282   
Stock-based compensation expense 132,876    94,615    230,779    178,106   
Amortization of acquired intangible assets 7,519    3,918    12,560    8,703   
Non-cash interest expense related to convertible notes 26,556    31,910    48,060    62,787   
Impairment on investments in privately-held companies 500    (8,611)   8,503    (8,611)  
Restructuring charges —    (217)   —    (217)  
Non-GAAP income before income taxes 28,345    209,394    145,261    425,050   
Non-GAAP provision (benefit) for income taxes (1)
1,118,723    (1,029,343)   1,148,231    (1,102,172)  
Non-GAAP net income (loss) $ (1,090,378)   $ 1,238,737    $ (1,002,970)   $ 1,527,222   
GAAP basic shares 785,909    768,755    783,303    766,658   
Dilutive equity awards (2)
—    16,301    —    14,720   
Non-GAAP diluted shares (3)
785,909    785,056    783,303    781,378   
Non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share $ (1.39)   $ 1.58    $ (1.28)   $ 1.95   
Adjusted EBITDA:
Net income (loss)
$ (1,228,005)   $ 1,119,560    $ (1,236,401)   $ 1,310,364   
Stock-based compensation expense 132,876    94,615    230,779    178,106   
Depreciation and amortization expense 123,837    115,616    244,486    229,090   
Interest and other expense (income), net 15,176    (12,093)   23,268    (14,938)  
Provision (benefit) for income taxes
1,088,899    (1,031,781)   1,081,760    (1,126,082)  
Restructuring charges —    (217)   —    (217)  
Adjusted EBITDA $ 132,783    $ 285,700    $ 343,892    $ 576,323   
Stock-based compensation expense by function:
Cost of revenue $ 8,996    $ 5,973    $ 14,752    $ 11,021   
Research and development 77,988    50,229    138,575    96,490   
Sales and marketing 29,183    22,202    48,022    40,267   
General and administrative 16,709    16,211    29,430    30,328   
Total stock-based compensation expense $ 132,876    $ 94,615    $ 230,779    $ 178,106   
Amortization of acquired intangible assets by function:
Cost of revenue $ 7,519    $ 3,763    $ 12,560    $ 8,083   
Sales and marketing —    155    —    620   
Total amortization of acquired intangible assets $ 7,519    $ 3,918    $ 12,560    $ 8,703   
Restructuring charges by function:
Cost of revenue $ —    $ (13)   $ —    $ (13)  
Research and development —    (73)   —    (73)  
Sales and marketing —    (87)   —    (87)  
General and administrative —    (44)   —    (44)  
Total restructuring charges $ —    $ (217)   $ —    $ (217)  
Non-GAAP costs and expenses:
Total costs and expenses $ 807,368    $ 765,695    $ 1,622,448    $ 1,458,927   
Less: stock-based compensation expense (132,876)   (94,615)   (230,779)   (178,106)  
Less: amortization of acquired intangible assets (7,519)   (3,918)   (12,560)   (8,703)  
Less: restructuring charges —    217    —    217   
Total non-GAAP costs and expenses $ 666,973    $ 667,379    $ 1,379,109    $ 1,272,335   

14


TWITTER, INC.
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES
(In thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)
(Continued)

Three Months Ended Six Months Ended
June 30, June 30,
2020 2019 2020 2019
Adjusted free cash flow:
Net cash provided by operating activities $ 201,016    $ 338,973    $ 447,783    $ 690,666   
Less: purchases of property and equipment (164,416)   (135,795)   (287,083)   (218,821)  
Plus: proceeds from sales of property and equipment 2,282    1,101    3,905    3,057   
Adjusted free cash flow $ 38,882    $ 204,279    $ 164,605    $ 474,902   
Adjusted net income (loss) and adjusted diluted net income (loss) per share:
Net income (loss)
$ (1,228,005)   $ 1,119,560    $ (1,236,401)   $ 1,310,364   
Exclude: benefit from deferred tax asset (4)
—    (1,082,460)   —    (1,206,880)  
Exclude: provision for deferred tax assets valuation allowance (5)
1,101,374    —    1,101,374    —   
Adjusted net income (loss)
$ (126,631)   $ 37,100    $ (135,027)   $ 103,484   
GAAP diluted shares 785,909    785,056    783,303    781,378   
Adjusted diluted net income (loss) per share
$ (0.16)   $ 0.05    $ (0.17)   $ 0.13   
(1) The non-GAAP benefit from income taxes for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019 includes benefits of $1.08 billion and $1.21 billion, respectively, from the establishment of deferred tax assets from intra-entity transfers of intangible assets. The non-GAAP provision for income taxes for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 includes a provision of $1.11 billion related to the establishment of a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets.
(2) Gives effect to potential common stock instruments such as stock options, RSUs, shares to be issued under ESPP, unvested restricted stocks and warrants. There is no dilutive effect of the notes or the related hedge and warrant transactions.
(3) GAAP diluted shares are the same as non-GAAP diluted shares for all periods presented.
(4) The benefit from deferred tax asset in the three and six months ended June 30, 2019 is primarily related to the establishment of deferred tax assets from intra-entity transfers of intangible assets.
(5) The provision for deferred tax assets valuation allowance in the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 is related to the establishment of a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets.


15


TWITTER, INC.
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP REVENUE TO NON-GAAP CONSTANT CURRENCY REVENUE
(In millions)
(Unaudited)

  Three Months Ended Six Months Ended
  June 30, June 30,
  2020 2019 2020 2019
Revenue, advertising revenue, data licensing and other revenue, international revenue and international advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect (1):
       
Revenue $ 683    $ 841    $ 1,491    $ 1,628   
Foreign exchange effect on 2020 revenue using 2019 rates
   
Revenue excluding foreign exchange effect $ 687    $ 1,496   
Revenue year-over-year change percent (19) % (8) %
Revenue excluding foreign exchange effect year-over-year change percent (18) % (8) %
Advertising revenue $ 562    $ 727    $ 1,244    $ 1,407   
Foreign exchange effect on 2020 advertising revenue using 2019 rates
   
Advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect $ 566    $ 1,249   
Advertising revenue year-over-year change percent (23) % (12) %
Advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect year-over-year change percent (22) % (11) %
Data licensing and other revenue $ 121    $ 114    $ 247    $ 222   
Foreign exchange effect on 2020 data licensing and other revenue using 2019 rates
—    —   
Data licensing and other revenue excluding foreign exchange effect $ 121    $ 247   
Data licensing and other revenue year-over-year change percent % 11  %
Data licensing and other revenue excluding foreign exchange effect year-over-year change percent % 11  %
International revenue $ 319    $ 386    $ 658    $ 741   
Foreign exchange effect on 2020 international revenue using 2019 rates
   
International revenue excluding foreign exchange effect $ 323    $ 663   
International revenue year-over-year change percent (18) % (11) %
International revenue excluding foreign exchange effect year-over-year change percent (17) % (11) %
International advertising revenue $ 279    $ 349    $ 579    $ 665   
Foreign exchange effect on 2020 international advertising revenue using 2019 rates
   
International advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect $ 283    $ 584   
International advertising revenue year-over-year change percent (20) % (13) %
International advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect year-over-year change percent (19) % (12) %
(1) The sum of individual metrics may not always equal total amounts indicated due to rounding.

16
Close
The content provided on Two Margins is for information purposes only and does not constitute investment and/or legal advice. Crypto currencies are highly volatile, risky assets and no information on this site, whether generated by Two Margins or external contributors, is a substitute for your own research. Full Risk Disclosure and Disclaimer here.