TWITTER TO PAY INVESTORS $800M TO SETTLE CLAIMS

Twitter will pay investors more than US$800 million to settle claims that it misled shareholders over its growth prospects. The social network agreed to settle the legal action that claimed it inflated expectations about the number of users, but did not admit wrongdoing.

Shareholders alleged that in 2014 and 2015, statements from Twitter executives led them to believe it would return to adding tens of millions of users every quarter.

At one event, Twitter touted plans to reach more than 550 million users and revenues of $4.8 billion by 2018.

However, that growth failed to materialize. Its shares collapsed below their float price, falling close to 80 per cent between their high point in 2014 and a record low in 2016.