Twitter And Snap Earnings Shine For Social Startups

Morning Report: Surprise! Twitter and Snap didn’t fall apart this earnings cycle. That’s good for social-focused startups.

In the early hours of the morning, Twitter reported its fourth-quarter earnings. Its shares are up 19 percent at the time of writing, pushing Twitter back over the $30 per share mark.

Follow Crunchbase News on Twitter & Facebook

Twitter’s solid results come just days after Snap reported its performance, a display so strong that shares of the beleaguered camera shop shot up by more than 40 percent. Snap’s shares are finally worth more than their IPO price.

The tandem performance is a shot in the arm for social-focused startups, which have, until this week, had to deal with a steady downbeat of news from their public siblings. As Twitter remained mired in slow user growth hell, and Snap’s top line expansion consistently fell flat, smaller, private social companies have had to work in their shadow.

Today the market feels different. Twitter reported $731.6 million in revenue, far higher than an expected $686.1 million result. The company also brought in 19 cents per share, adjusted, against an expected 14 cents per share win.

All that and Twitter’s DAU count was up 12 percent year-over-year. Investors liked the mix. Of course, Twitter’s flat quarter-over-quarter monthly active user count was not great. Nonetheless, Twitter’s number of concurrent wins was a victory.

However, it isn’t smooth sailing from here. The two companies performed well during a holiday-juiced quarter. But for social startups, it’s likely a welcome respite.

From The Crunchbase Daily:

LogMeIn buys Jive for $357M

• Publicly traded LogMeIn is buying Jive Communications, a venture-backed provider of cloud-based phone services, for $342 million up front and up to $15 million in milestone payments. Orem, Utah-based Jive, founded in 2006, previously raised $31 million in venture funding.

GOAT, Flight Club seal sneaker merger

• Online sneaker marketplace GOAT is acquiring New York-based sneaker retailer Flight Club and raising a $60M series C round to fuel its expanstion. Index Ventures is leading the financing, with participation from previous investors Accel, Matrix Partners and Upfront Ventures.

Startups make weird name choices

• Looking for a startup name? How about an animal, a vegetable, or a very unpopular first name? Those are some of the choices in vogue lately with founders, a Crunchbase News analysis of startup naming trends found.