Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Twitter co-founder and former CEO, Evan Williams: the site founded by Williams and others is now worth $3.7bn. Paul Sakuma/AP
Twitter

Twitter valued at $3.7bn after new share deal

The microblogging platform gets $200m in new venture capital funding, pushing the site’s value upwards.

MICROBLOGGING SITE TWITTER is now worth $3.7 billion (€2.8bn) after raising a further $200m in funding from venture capital investors.

The investment in the site – understood to have been in return for what becomes a 5.4% stake in the company, as well as the addition of two new directors – values the site at $3.7bn, parallel to the value of many of the internet’s best-known public companies are worth.

The bulk of the funding came from Silicon Valley investor vehicle Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Reuters reports, with the remainder coming from existing investors to the site.

Reuters quotes an analyst from BGC Partners, Colin Gillis, who estimates that the site currently earns under $100m a year – but that the site, given its sheer size, could be monetised effectively if an appropriate form of advertising could be developed.

A Twitter blog post said the funding would “help us continue to grow as a company.”

The new valuation means that the likelihood of a public share offering now seems greater, though the site would be considered a weak prospect if it could not find a way to successfully monetise its userbase.

Twitter’s most recent figures suggested a worldwide userbase of about 175 million as of September.

The latest investment dwarfs any previous valuation of the site; previous investments in the Twitter site had totalled $160m.