[staunch]

They won't get higher prices for their stock that what people like this are willing to pay. They need a killer business model or a lot more scale to have revenues large enough to justify their valuation.

Taking this kind of money keeps them in business long enough to build real revenues (or fail).

[latchkey]

I was trying to be subtle, but still say that I find it amazing that Twitter hasn't figured out a business model yet. Anyone I've talked with any bit of knowledge has always said that they are raking in the cash selling data analysis and things like promoted tweets.

That said, as other people have commented, maybe Twitter didn't have a choice in this matter. If so, that would have been an interesting phone call to listen in on.

Assume you have $300 million worth of Twitter stock that you can sell. Imagine getting a phone call along the lines of: "The Saudi prince is calling, and he'd like to buy all your stock for $300 million." I'd be sh*tting bricks and trying to figure out if there are any new Gunboat 90's [1] available to purchase. ;-)

[1] http://www.gunboat.com/90-gallery.php

[willyt]

Go stealth yacht: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wally+yachts&hl=en&...