Twitter set to raise $800 million in private equity
25 Jul 2011
Microblogging site Twitter will go for a fresh round of financing to raise up to $800 million in private placements that would push the market value of the site to a whopping $8 billion.
Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the Russian internet-investment group and an investor in Facebook, will take a stake of around $400 million, while other investors will take stakes worth another $400 million, Sky News reported yesteday.
Other investors are likely to be JP Morgan's Digital Growth Fund, while the Telegraph said that T Rowe Price, the US-based mutual fund manager, which already owns a small stake in Twitter, might invest around $90 million.
The funding, which is expected to comprise two parts - $400 million investment and $400 million to cash out existing investors and employees - will form part of an $800 million investment round.
The first part of the fund will close as soon as tomorrow, according to the report.
This is more than double the $3.7 billion valuation Twitter received when it got $200 million in venture funding from Kleiner Perkins in December 2010. (See: Twitter's new funding values it at $3.7 bn)