This is kind of ridiculous (selling Twitter for $10billion). But it could be a New Zealander who created the next big thing. Technology is our future. If we invest in it. If we do it right. If we believed in ourselves. If we had a vision.
By SPENCER E. ANTE, AMIR EFRATI And ANUPREETA DAS
As Internet valuations climb and bankers and would-be buyers circle Silicon Valley in an increasingly frothy tech market, many eyes are on one particularly desirable, if still enigmatic, target: Twitter. Discussions with at least some potential suitors have produced an estimated valuation of $8 billion to $10 billion.
Getty ImagesTwitter co-founder Biz Stone, left, during an announcement of the newly revamped Twitter website in September.
Executives at both Facebook Inc. and
Google Inc., among other companies, have held low-level talks with those at Twitter Inc. in recent months to explore the prospect of an acquisition of the messaging service, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks have so far gone nowhere, these people say.
But what’s remarkable is the money that people familiar with the matter say frames the discussions with at least some potential suitors: an estimated valuation in the neighborhood of $8 billion to $10 billion.
This for a company that, people familiar with the matter said, had 2010 revenue of $45 million—but lost money as it spent on hiring and data centers—and estimates its revenue this year at between $100 million and $110 million.
Meanwhile, John Key and his government tinker around the edges and want to sell our assets. Oh God (apologies)
