Does Twitter Need DST Dollars?
Russian investor Yuri Milner has a voracious appetite for Web companies, having plowed hundreds of millions of dollars buying stakes in companies like Facebook and Zynga, and buying instant messaging service ICQ outright.
And he’s not finished.
In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, Milner, the CEO of Digital Sky Technologies, said he was eyeing a few dozen Internet companies around the world for new deals.
While Milner declined to name any specific investment targets, he pointedly refused to rule out buying a stake in Twitter, according to the article.
So are DST and Twitter talking?
Funnily enough, Reuters asked Twitter COO Dick Costolo that very question last week during the Reuters Global Technology Summit.
The query elicited a chuckle from Costolo who then provided the following answer that doesn’t specifically rule out the possibility that the two companies could have talked.
Ex-Facebookers could lose out on stock sale
Facebook shareholders got the long-awaited gift of liquidity last week when Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies began buying up to $100 million of Facebook common stock from current and former employees.
The latter group however, may end up with bupkus, as it turns out that the program puts ex-employees at the back of the line.
Only after all of Facebook’s current employees have had a chance to sell their stock to DST for $14.77 a share can former employees step forward to cash out their shares, according to person familiar with the matter.
That’s sensible enough, since the point of the program is to help Facebook’s loyal workers get funds to defray the cost of living in costly Palo Alto, California, and not to line the pockets of people who jumped ship.
But it means that former Facebookers may not get a chance to reap the benefits of their stakes in the world’s largest Internet social network. If Facebook’s current employees use up the $100 million that DST has committed to buying shares, ex-Facebook shareholders are out of luck. And forget about cashing out through an IPO any time soon.
The terms of the DST stock purchase allow Facebook shareholders to sell either $1 million worth of shares, or 25 percent of their total shares, whichever is larger, the person said.
The best hope for ex-employees, the source said, is that DST decides to buy more shares when the current share purchase program ends next month.
“all hype, no profit” I agree it does need a business plan -But Facebook is not about to disappear. There are too many followers, you just need to watch your local news fanclub. It’s now part of many business card just like Twitter & Skype.But if Russian’s company, DST, think there is profit to be made, should anyone be worry, or am I the only one to see some irony.
Like google, twitter has two equal letters.
I know the secret, but doens have an a great idea.
Twitter needs yes.