TweetDeck, the third-party Twitter client bought by Twitter for over $40 million back in May 2011, is on the fringe of being kicked off the U.K. registrar for failing to file its annual business accounts with the U.K. Companies House. In other words, Twitter hasn’t submitted its annual financial information to the U.K. government and risks its TweetDeck Ltd. subsidiary from losing its status as company.
According to the Companies House, this is the second time TweetDeck Ltd. failed to submit its accounts, with the company missing its first deadline in September and the second time in December of last year. The company has up to 99 days to file their account, a Company House spokesperson told SkyNews.
While the company has incurred negligible penalties of £375 ($601) per overdue filing, the House Commons has already imposed a proposal to strike off the company. Should that proposal pass, the company could be dissolved altogether with the assets going to the “Crown” (the U.K. government) and along with any outstanding credit.
Based on the Companys Act of 2006, Twitter could have asked for an extension before the first filing deadline on September 30, but the company’s motives aren’t clear. What’s required from TweetDeck Ltd. are its balance sheets, a statement of its profits and losses, and an auditor and director’s report, none of which had made their way to the proper authorities. Twitter has been mum on the issue so far. When asked for comment, Twitter declined to respond.
There’s a key detail in the Companys Act, which might suggest just why Twitter has been holding back on revealing TweetDeck’s balance sheets. All registered limited companies – this includes TweetDeck – must file annual financial statements, but this information becomes publicly available. In other words, Twitter just might have something to hide.
For a company that may have plans for an IPO, revelations about even a snippet of its financial health – by way of TweetDeck – could be disastrous to an interested investor’s ego. And we say this because the last leaked details about Twitter’s financials between 2010 and 2011, which was exposed by Gawker back in March 2012, show that Twitter was hemorrhaging money. To recap, in Q1 2011 Twitter garnered $23.8 million in revenue and lost $49.2 million. To Twitter’s credit, the social network appears to have gained steam during 2012 thanks to its mobile ad revenue. And just based on rumors Twitter’s IPO is being hyped up to be bigger than Facebook’s public offering.
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