Twitter reports earnings miss, citing uncertainty over Elon Musk's buyout

Twitter reported disappointing results on Friday, a miss that the social network attributed to "headwinds" including the uncertainty related to Elon Musk's buyout bid.

The firm is locked in a legal battle with the mercurial Tesla boss over his effort to walk away from his $44 billion deal to purchase the platform, leaving the company in limbo.

Twitter missed expectations with revenue of $1.18 billion, due to "advertising industry headwinds... as well as uncertainty related to the pending acquisition of Twitter by an affiliate of Elon Musk," the firm reported.

The news comes days after Twitter notched a victory in its fight with Musk, when a judge agreed to a fast-track trial on whether to force the billionaire to complete the buyout.

Musk argues that the platform misled on the number of fake accounts on the platform, but the social media platform counters that he is just trying to get out of the deal.

Musk's lawyers had pushed for a February 2023 date, but the court in the eastern US state of Delaware hewed closely to the uncertainty-wracked platform's desire for speed and set an October start.

Losing money

Billions of dollars are at stake, but so is the future of Twitter, which...