Feb 8, 2018 - Technology

Twitter beats on earnings in first-ever profitable quarter

Erica Pandey, author of @Work

Outside Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco. Photo: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Twitter reported fourth quarter earnings of 19 cents per share before the bell Thursday morning, surpassing the industry estimates of 14 cents per share, CNBC reports. The bump earned Twitter its first-ever net profitable quarter.

Why it matters, per Axios' Sara Fischer: The company has been making strategic investments in video ad revenue for the past two years, led by COO Anthony Noto, who announced he would be leaving the company to become CEO of SoFi earlier this year. Executives have pointed out that the company has focused on its core software and live video as a strategic path to profitability as opposed to making investments in other bets, like hardware.

By the numbers: Twitter also beat revenue expectations, reporting $732 million compared to $686.1 million estimated. Monthly active users were 330 million, slightly below the projected 332.5 million, and Twitter attributed this to its crackdown on fake accounts.

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