Twitter to pay $810 million to settle shareholder suit on growth

Twitter announced on Monday that it has agreed to pay $809.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging the social media company misled investors about growth metrics. 

The lawsuit, originally filed by Twitter shareholder Doris Shenwick, alleges that Twitter executives misled investors about the company’s growth metrics including monthly active users and timeline views in November 2014, promising to increase monthly active users to 550 million in the intermediate term and over a billion over the long term. 

According to the complaint, the company failed to realize both estimates and concealed that it had no basis for these estimates.

The company said the proposed settlement would resolve all claims asserted against Twitter and the other named defendants without any admission, concession or finding of any fault, liability or wrongdoing.

“Twitter and the individual defendants continue to deny any wrongdoing or any other improper actions.” the company said. 

Twitter said it intends to use cash on hand to fund the settlement, which is subject to court approval, in the fourth quarter and that it expects to record a charge in the third quarter of 2021.