Troubled micro-blogging service, Twitter, saw its stock plunge by 10% in after-hours trading after it posted 4th quarter earnings that disappointed Wall Street. The San Francisco-based social media company reported a net loss of $90 million in the final three months of last year though revenues rose by an impressive 48% over the same period in 2014, coming in at $711m.

It was the user growth data that prompted the selloff, however, with the report revealing that Twitter has 320 million monthly active users (MAUs), the same as the preceding quarter. Immediately after the report was published, Twitter’s stock sold off sharply in after-hours before recovering to close out the extended session 3% down.

Mizuho Corporate Global technology sector analyst, Carlos Tejedor said, “Twitter has some serious issues. They desperately want to change the layout and format of the service but the hardcore user base who love Twitter as it is tend to be incredibly resistant to change even though the company’s valuation depends more on its ability to grow its user base”.

Twitter’s stock price has fallen to close to half of the $26 it debuted on the NYSE in November 2013 and far below the near $70 it reached at the height of its popularity with investors in early 2014.

“Mizuho Corporate Global thinks the future for Twitter may lie in being acquired by someone like Google or Yahoo. It’s never made a profit but there is clearly value tied up in that 300 million-plus hardcore user base. With that in mind and somewhat encouraged by the bounce in the stock during the after-hours session, we think their might be some merit in acquiring TWTR as a takeover target,” added Tejedor.

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