NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pomerantz LLP announce that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter” or the “Company”) (NYSE: TWTR) and certain of its officers.   The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the Northern District of California, and docketed under 19-cv-07992, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Twitter securities from August 6, 2019 through October 23, 2019, inclusive (the “Class Period”), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants’ violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Twitter securities during the class period, you have until December 30, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class.  A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com.   To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased. 

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

Twitter describes itself as a global platform for public self-expression and conversation in real time.  Twitter is available in more than forty languages around the world.  The service can be accessed via twitter.com, an array of mobile devices via Twitter-owned-and-operated mobile applications (e.g., Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android), and SMS (text messaging).

Twitter generates the substantial majority of its revenue from advertising.  Twitter enables its advertisers to target an audience based on a variety of factors, including a user’s interests—called an “interest graph”.  The interest graph maps, among other things, interests based on users followed and actions taken on the Company’s platform, such as “tweets” (posts on Twitter) that are created and engagement with tweets.  In addition, when someone joins Twitter, it asks users for their permission to use their device settings and data—additional information which helps Twitter and its advertisers to target consumers.

The Complaint alleges that on August 6, 2019, Twitter publicly disclosed through a tweet that it recently found issues where certain user settings choices designed to target advertising were not working as intended. Twitter represented that “We recently discovered and fixed issues related to your settings choices for the way we deliver personalized ads, and when we share certain data with trusted measurement and advertising partners.” (Emphasis added). However, unknown to investors, while Twitter represented that it “fixed” certain issues relating to user choice settings, Defendants failed to disclose that the changes implemented to fix these issues adversely affected Twitter’s ability to target advertising, including the targeting of advertising through its Mobile App Promotion (“MAP”) product, which caused a material decline in advertising revenue.

On October 24, 2019, before the market opened, the Company disclosed its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2019 and conducted a conference call with investors. During the conference call, Defendant Dorsey, disclosed that Twitter “had some missteps and bugs in our map ads . . . We discovered and took steps to remediate bugs that largely affected our legacy map product. These bugs affected our ability to target ads and share data with measurement and partners. We also discovered that certain personalization and data sightings were not operating as expected.”

On this news, Twitter’s shares declined from a closing price of $38.83 per share on October 23, 2019, to close at $30.73 per share, a decline of $8.10 per share, or over 20%, on heavier than average trading volume.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby
Pomerantz LLP
[email protected]