#Ring – Twitter stock closes up 73pc – social media giant valued at US$25bn

7 Nov 2013

After a frenzied day of trading on its IPO social media giant Twitter’s stock closed at US$44.90 almost double the US$26 opening price – or 73pc up.

Twitter’s shares traded at about 22 times forecasted sales for 2014.

The closing trading price is in stark contrast with how Twitter began the day. The social media giant started with a US$26 asking price that valued the company at US$18.1bn.

It ended the day with a valuation of US$25bn.

The opening bell was rung by Patrick Stewart, the actor known for portraying Captain Jean-Luc Picard, 9 near-old Vivianne Harr who ran a lemonade stand for 365 days to protest slavery and a representative of the Boston Police.

Twitter began as an idea debated by the San Francisco founders of the company as they sat on swings in a playground down the street from their original company, Odeo, back in 2006.

The largest Twitter shareholder is co-founder Evan Williams, who owns 12pc of the shares. Other major shareholders include Benchmark Capital, which owns 6.7pc of the company; Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey, who owns 4.9pc; and Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, who owns 1.6pc of the company.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com