Twitter Shares Slide Below IPO Price

One of the world’s largest social networking platform, Twitter Inc shares plunged below their $26 initial public offering price, down almost two-thirds from a peak soon after the stock began trading.

The selloff was triggered three weeks ago, when Jack Dorsey, co-founder and interim chief executive officer, warned that it would take a while before Twitter is able to reverse a slowdown in user growth.

While his candor was hailed by analysts, investors appear to have taken his comments — which also described product performance as “unacceptable” — to heart.

The board’s search for a new CEO, and uncertainty over whether Dorsey is in contention for the job, also have weighed on the shares. At stake is whether Twitter — used by 316 million monthly users posting and sharing 140-character messages — can become a mainstream platform instead of a niche forum favored by journalists and celebrities.

Bloomberg reported that Twitter was down 5.9 percent at $25.97 on Thursday amid a general market selloff. The company’s shares have declined about 28 percent so far this year.

At the time of Twitter’s November 2013 IPO, the company was heralded as a high-growth stock with the potential to be the next Facebook Inc. Yet the San Francisco-based company has failed to grow as fast as expected. Twitter has endured months of pressure over the user numbers, tweaking its features and shuffling its product and engineering leadership, without much progress.

Further share declines could add pressure on Twitter to seek a takeover, or complete its search for a CEO. Dorsey also runs Square Inc., which he couldn’t leave without straining the payment company’s planned IPO, people familiar with the matter have said.