Posts Tagged ‘Biz Stone’

Twitter to raise funding at $1 billion valuation?

Twitter is attempting to raise funding at a $1 billion valuation, according to a TechCrunch post Wednesday.

The blog cited unnamed sources claiming that Twitter CEO Evan Williams announced the valuation in a recent meeting. According to TechCrunch’s sources, Twitter plans to raise about $50 million during the financing round. The company has already raised about $55 million in funding.

Twitter hasn’t immediately responded to requests for comment.

In February, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced in a blog post that his company raised approximately $35 million in a Series C round of funding led by Benchmark and Institutional Venture Partners. At the time, it was reported that Twitter’s valuation for the round was about $250 million. Assuming that both reports are true, Twitter is contending that it’s now worth four times as much as it was just seven months ago.

Of course, determining the real value of a company is a subjective practice. And most times, those figures change rapidly as economic factors impact the company’s operation.

Twitter, which has yet to turn a profit, still hasn’t implemented a profit-making business model. That could have a major impact on its valuation, regardless of the figure.

That said, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an interview with VentureBeat last month that his company will implement a revenue model by the end of the year. He wouldn’t dig too deep into details, but he did say it would incorporate paid accounts for businesses that want to use the platform for marketing and customer relations.

But just how those paid accounts will impact Twitter’s growing user base is up for debate. Will companies go elsewhere to promote their brands? Will they pay Twitter’s fees? All that can impact the company’s real value.

So as Twitter possibly heads into another round of funding, it’s important to remember that valuations are fluid numbers that are easily changed. It’s also important to note that so far, Twitter hasn’t confirmed that $1 billion valuation. So maintain some skepticism, as we do, until we hear from Twitter.

Source :

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10355207-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Biz Stone is keynote speaker at 140: Twitter Conference LA

The Twitter conference is coming to Los Angeles September 22 -23, 2009. With an amazing number of A-List people speaking and attending, this conference is sure to be THE social media conference to attend this year.

Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, Inc. will be the keynote speaker at 140: Twitter Conference LA, “Tapping into the Real Time Web”.

This conference is a two day event with two tracks; a main track and a developers track. Celebrities and Geeks tweet up to discuss all things Twitter. If you are new to Twitter or not there is something for everyone including celebrity panels, business sessions and the latest killer apps.

Who will be speaking at this must-attend conference? To list just a few: Dr. Drew Pinsky, Tony Hawk, LeVar Burton, Guy Kawasaki, Veronica Belmont, Peter Shankman, Justine Ezarik, and many more.

A sample of the sessions:

Twitter and Celebrity: A Match Made in Heaven? Featuring Dr. Drew Pinsky, LeVarBurton, Guy Kawasaki, Olivia Munn, and Mark Geragos.

Lunch panel: The Comedy Session featuring Tom Arnold and Jamie Kennedy

Developer Showcase:

There will also be a dedicated space at The Twitter Conference to showcase some of the cool stuff being developed. If you’re going to be attending the conference, then you’ve got a room of cool developers showing off new applications to look forward to. If you’re promoting a launch or looking to generate buzz for an existing Twitter application, you should consider joining the Developer Showcase.

Tweetup

The Official 140tc Tweetup party will be held from 5:30-7:30 on September 22

To learn more about the conference or to buy tickets: The Twitter Conference

Tickets are just $299 until September 6th. They will increase to $429 until sold out.

More info :

http://www.examiner.com/x-14552-Social-Media-Examiner~y2009m8d26-Biz-Stone-is-keynote-speaker-at-140-Twitter-Conference-LA

Olivia’s Tweets
Search
Subscribe
Archives