Jonathan Weil, Columnist

I Have No Idea Why Twitter's Stock Crashed

Why did Twitter's stock plunge today? Did it have something to do with the lockup period? I have no idea, and neither does anyone else.

May 6, 2014 at 9:23 PM UTC

By Jonathan Weil

That Twitter bird looks good on the NYSE, but the company isn't profitable. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg — That Twitter bird looks good on the NYSE, but the company isn't profitable. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Does anybody really know why Twitter Inc.'s stock price fell 18 percent today? I, for one, do not.

A lot of the news reports are focusing on the fact that Twitter's lockup period expired today. This means restrictions on sales by insiders and early investors were lifted, and about 480 million shares became eligible for sale. Those restraints were set by the company's Wall Street underwriters as part of Twitter's initial public offering six months ago.