Goldman Boosts Twitter: Nanigans CEO Bullish On Platform's Ads

Shares of Twitter Inc TWTR gained 3.58 percent after a Goldman note issued positive comments on the micro-blogging site. Goldman Sachs hosted lunch with Ric Calvillo, CEO & co-founder of privately-held Nanigans, which provides software and services to advertisers to help them shape their ad campaigns and meet marketing goals. The note from Goldman Sachs said Calvillo sees Twitter as moving quickly to improve its ad products and expects some key announcements near term. Calvillo noted that there is a widespread negative view on Twitter right now but Nanigans is bullish on its growth. "Calvillo called out that video is performing well on Facebook Inc FB and highlighted that it's the best performing ad product on Twitter," the report said. According to the research note, Calvillo said that half of Nanigans' customers have adopted Instagram and that on average Instagram accounts for 20 percent incremental spend to current Facebook budgets (with no FB cannibalization). In line with typical seasonality, Nanigans noted that Facebook pricing has been down in the first quarter, but to a lesser extent than they've seen in the past. This comment did not include Instagram so the comp is on a like-for-like basis, the report added. Shares of TWTR, which dropped 25 percent this year, were currently up about 3 percent at $16.63.