Billionaire, Elon Musk is acquiring Twitter for $44 BILLION ???? ???? ????????????
The news has been abuzz with the intrigue and possibility of this sales acquisition of the social media giant software platform since early April. Some variation of this $44B Twitter sale has been in the media for the last week. This is a great headline but what’s the real story?
As a SaaS founder, it’s easy to get sucked into the headline but forget the journey. In this blog article, we describe Twitter’s journey.
Twitter was started in 2006. It was originally developed as a status sharing app project of parent company Odeo (founded in 2004, now defunct). Initially, Twitter, was spelled “twittr” without the “e.”
It was launched as a free software application. In 2006, initial launch efforts generated 100 new signups and the platform did not have a huge user base.
Live Twitter use at SXSW in 2007 boosted the usage of Twitter and started driving more tech users to the platform. Now that they had shown some user viability, in April 2007, Twitter spun off into a private tech company.
With Jack Dorsey at the helm as Chief Executive Officer, Twitter completed a $5 Million Dollar funding round in June 2007 giving the fledgling company a $20 Million Dollar valuation.
Lots of innovation and growth happened during this stage. In August 2007, the use of hashtags (#) debuted on Twitter.
In June 2008, Twitter secured a second funding round ???? ????. In February 2009, Twitter secured a third funding round ???? ???? ????.
In 2009 Twitter use started to take off worldwide. Twitter use was cited as an influential communication catalyst in international protests. Twitter was used as primary communication for organization and communication during protests in Iran, Egypt, and is popular social media used in the Arab Spring revolutions.
In 2011, Twitter completed a Series G funding round of $800 Million Dollars giving the company an $8 Billion Dollar valuation ????????. Twitter used this funding to buy out existing investors at $400 Million Dollars.
In 2012, Twitter reached a milestone of having 140 Million users with daily usage of 340 Million tweets per day.
In 2012-2013, Twitter acquired other tech companies with social media technology including Vine, Trendrr, and MoPub.
On November 7, 2013, Twitter’s initial public offering (IPO) end with 70 million shares at a stock price of $44.90 giving the company a $31 Billion valuation ????????????
Since then, the Twitter brand name has become synonymous with social media free speech. Twitter’s political influence was called into question during the US 2020 Presidential Election.
After a barrage of controversial tweets from then U.S. President Donald Trump, Twitter permanently suspended President Donald Trump on January 8, 2021.
April 25, 2022 Twitter is selling for $44 BILLION
Twitter Co-Founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey is poised to make $1 Billion Dollars if this acquisition goes through. That’s a considerable amount of ROI on a 16 year investment in a tech startup.
Again, as a SaaS founder, it’s easy to get sucked into the headline but forget the journey…
This was Twitter’s journey. Right now if the acquisition goes through, it will show how much is possible in a short sixteen years.
If you’re committed, don’t let anything hold you back.
Be willing to do anything to reach your goals.
Be willing to sacrifice everything and GO ALL IN.
Always find a way to make it happen.
What’s your journey? What’s your story?
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