SCHADENFREUDE: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows to 1 Percent.

Twitter has had trouble persuading advertisers to spend more money on its social-media platform as fewer people join. Pressure on the company mounted in the fourth quarter when its search for a potential buyer failed, forcing Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey to focus on reaching profitability as an independent business. Twitter cut 9 percent of its staff, sold its Fabric developer business to Google and shut down its Vine short-video app. It also lost both its chief operating officer and chief technology officer, increasing the load on Dorsey, whose time is divided because of his other job — as CEO of Square Inc.

“The fact that they’ve tolerated having a shared CEO is remarkable given the situation they’re in,” said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group. “Unfortunately, it’s a situation of investor indifference — everyone is used to Twitter’s troubles by now.”

Square isn’t doing very well, either.