Twitter valued at $3.7bn after fresh investment
Twitter has raised an additional $200m (£128m) in finance as the micro-blogging site continues to look for ways to grow its commercial operations.
Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the investment with money also provided by existing investors. The deal values Twitter at $3.7bn (£2.4bn).
Twitter is now said to have raised about $360m (£230.8m) since starting in 2007. The money has allowed it to invest in developing services and features without immediate pressure to make money.
In October, however, it promoted chief operating officer Dick Costolo to chief executive, a move that many observers said indicated Twitter was preparing to find new ways to increase revenue.
Costolo has been key to the social networking site’s increased commercial activities, including the roll out of Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends.
Twitter also announced it is adding two new board members, David Rosenblatt, chief executive of advertising firm DoubleClick, and Mike McCrue, boss of social magazine FlipBoard.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ previous investments have proven successful with early backing given to Goggle and Amazon, both now multi-billion dollar businesses.
