Same Old Song As Twitter's Head Of Product Leaves; Does The Company Need To Pursue M&A?

Head of Product at Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) Jeff Seibert is reported to be stepping down. In September 2015, Seibert had replaced Kevin Weil, who moved to Instagram. Weil had taken over in October 2014 after merely a six-month tenure by Daniel Graf.

SunTrust Robinson Humphrey’s Robert Peck maintained a Buy rating for Twitter, with a price target of $18, saying that if the company’s abysmal performance continued, there could be material changes in 2017.

“The changing product managers in such a short time (4 in 3 years) raises concerns that changing the product innovation cadence is more difficult than previously presumed. It's further unsettling given the other executive departures (Stanton, Roetter, Hubbard, Messerschmidt, etc),” Peck wrote. He added that the departures were “particularly disconcerting,” given the progress made by other platforms like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

Related Link: Is Snapchat Seeing More Growth Than Twitter?

If Trends Remain, Sale Imminent

Twitter has been witnessing meager user and engagement growth. If this trend continues, the company would need to pursue M&A alternatives, Peck commented. Media properties of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are most likely to remain.

“Our current read of trends suggest a difficult April and May consistent with April levels thus far. Looking towards June we will be monitoring for the impact of Moments and other product tweaks,” the analyst stated.

Although Twitter may not be up for sale in the near term, if the current trends continue, it would be “a top candidate” in 2017. “Twitter within a larger property could be much more efficient on the cost and development lines and benefit from the reach on the top lines,” Peck added.

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