Yusko Compares Twitter Unfavorably With Facebook

Mark Yusko was recently a guest on #PreMarket Prep, a daily trading idea radio show hosted by Joel Elconin and Dennis Dick. Tune in to the daily broadcast live Monday-Friday at 8 a.m. ET here.Twitter IncTWTR

needs to "figure out how to monetize," an investment manager told Benzinga Friday.

Mark Yusko, chief executive of Morgan Creek Capital Management LLC, said Twitter "could be a great story but they need new leadership."

Twitter announced Thursday its chief executive Richard "Dick" Costolo will resign effective July 1 and get replaced on an interim basis by Twitter Chairman Jack Dorsey.

"A lot of people care about Twitter," Yusko said. "They just have to figure out how to get paid, how to make some money – and they could get the kind of multiple Facebook enjoys."

Yusko added that Facebook Inc FB "has really figured out monetization."

Twitter, off about 24 percent year-to-date, posted slower-than-expected quarterly revenue growth of 74 percent last month, while its loss widened sharply.

Costolo, who reduced the company's financial outlook at the time, said disappointing results from its direct response advertising products would continue to affect Twitter for the remainder of the fiscal year.

"Twitter seems to have lost its touch with marketers," Forrester analyst Nate Elliott told the Wall Street Journal Friday.

"It's easy to forget it was Twitter, not Facebook, that figured out how to insert brand messages into a social feed," Elliot said. "But it's been Facebook, not Twitter, that's innovated new forms of ad targeting within social."

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