AAA Twitter early birds to fledge

Twitter early birds to fledge

Social messaging service Twitter is reportedly brokering a deal for mutual fund manager BlackRock to buy up to $80m of shares from its employees at a $9bn valuation.

If enough employees accept the tender offer to hit the $80m limit, BlackRock will own just less than 1% of Twitter, according to news provider Financial Times.

In 2011, Alwaleed Bin Talal, a Saudi Arabian prince, invested $300m in Twitter, following Russian venture firm Digital Sky Technologies (DST) reportedly investing $400m in Twitter in August as part of an $800m funding round.

DST is backed by Chinese internet firm Tencent and South African media company Naspers.

T Rowe Price, an US mutual fund and a fund run by US-based bank JP Morgan had also invested in the company, the FT said.

Pinterest, in which Japan-based internet retailer Rakuten invested $100m last year, recently sold $30m in early-investor stock to SV Angel, according to news provider TechCrunch.

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