Cofounder Biz Stone prefers to find other ways of raising capital

Nov 24, 2009 11:27 GMT  ·  By

With Twitter getting back in shape in the past few weeks, even though visitor numbers are still down, it's time to play one of Silicon Valley's most popular games again. No, it's not 'how is Twitter going to make money' but 'when will Twitter be sold'. In the past, there have been plenty of interested parties and plenty of rumors, but cofounder Biz Stone assures us, again, that the company is not for sale and won't be for the foreseeable future. It may, however, be headed for an IPO if it has to, an option which is preferred to selling the company.

"The point is, we want to build our own company that will last for a long time. If an IPO's the way to do that, then sure. We don't have it checked off on the calendar yet," Stone told Reuters at an entrepreneurship event in the UK. "We are definitely not interested in selling the company," he added. "If an IPO's the only thing, then sure. But if there is some other way then that would be great too. Maybe some other new way will emerge."

Twitter has always denied that it has any plans to sell, especially now that the product has taken off, growing more than 10 times year over year. But now that the business side of the service is showing signs that it may be picking up, with search deals with Microsoft and Google, premium accounts by the end of the year and even advertising coming to the site in 2010, talks about this aspect have been popping up again.

Stone makes it clear that selling the company is the last option and is not the route he wants to take with Twitter. This despite his previous big creation, Blogger, being sold to Google for a hefty sum. Stone says that an IPO would be preferred if the company was in need for some serious capital, but this too isn't the best option in his view. Twitter has been getting some revenue this year and is expected to focus more on this aspect in 2010 and it's still very early to talk about an IPO. The company still has plenty of cash from investors, having raised some $150 million so far, which allows it to take its time in coming up with a revenue model.