Twitter closes at record low ahead of earnings

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter fell to record lows ahead of Wednesday's quarterly earnings report.

Shares declined more than 5% and dipped as low as $14.73 before closing at $14.90 on Monday.

They have lost more than half their value since Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey took over as CEO in July.

Twitter, already struggling with slowing user growth, experienced a sharp backlash from users over the weekend who were spooked by a report that the social media service planned to make fundamental changes to the timeline.

CEO Dorsey responds to Twitter timeline outrage

Dorsey has pledged to make Twitter more accessible to mainstream users. On his watch, Twitter has considered tweaking its reverse chronological timeline and allowing longer tweets.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter expects user growth to be stagnant again when Twitter announces fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

"Twitter remains difficult to use relative to its peers and a solution does not appear to be imminent," he wrote in a research report.

Follow USA TODAY senior technology writer Jessica Guynn@jguynn