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KoKo

(84,711 posts) Mon Oct 28, 2013, 07:49 PM Oct 2013

UhOh! from the 1%: From Chance Encounter, Path to Twitter Riches!

(Yeah...I know...sounds like FLUFF...but, this is the Crap Going on...Definitely on "Progressive Watch"...IMHO.. But, others might think WHOA! WAY TO GO!)
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From Chance Encounter, Path to Twitter Riches
Friendship Formed Foundation of 15.6% Stake in Social-Media Company

TEASER ALERT:
The largest stake in Twitter Inc. first came together seven years ago at a posh Caribbean resort.

On Necker Island, a retreat owned by billionaire Richard Branson, Suhail R. Rizvi, a little-known but well-connected financier, met Chris Sacca, a brash, young Google Inc. GOOG -0.02% executive.

Their friendship would later form the foundation of a 15.6% stake in Twitter managed by Mr. Rizvi's investment firm, Rizvi Traverse Management LLC. The journey to that stake—valued as high as $1.7 billion, based on Twitter's price range for its initial public offering—also included a convincing pitch to a Twitter co-founder and caged toy birds that resemble the social-media company's logo.

How the firm, led by Mr. Rizvi, accumulated that stake illustrates the changing rules of Silicon Valley investing. Traditional venture capitalists no longer are the only route into promising startups. Today, they are often joined, and sometimes jostled aside, by well-connected Silicon Valley insiders, who leverage their networks to buy chunks of sought-after deals.

The men made an odd pair. Mr. Rizvi was a quiet investor in big Hollywood deals who shied away from the cameras. Mr. Sacca was gregarious, with a fondness for Western-style collared shirts who was then writing a provocative tech blog. This account is based on interviews with several people with direct knowledge of the matter. A Twitter spokesman declined to comment.

Mr. Rizvi, 47 years old, an India-born financier raised in Iowa, didn't start off as a tech wizard.

An economics graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Rizvi began his career in private equity, primarily investing in real-estate deals. He waded into communications and technology in the 1990s, founding and eventually selling a long-distance telecom company and later buying a Puerto Rican company that he turned into a maker of telecom parts.

READ MORE...it's like the Movie "Wall Street on STEROIDS!" AT:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304682504579155862444063916

4 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

UhOh! from the 1%: From Chance Encounter, Path to Twitter Riches! (Original Post) KoKo Oct 2013 OP

Only in amerika warrant46 Oct 2013 #1

Yes...it's a read that kind of gets off into Bizarre........isn't it. KoKo Oct 2013 #2

The other side of that is the underwriters of these IPOs BlueStreak Oct 2013 #3

Yep...the reality disconnect still goes on where the HYPE brings in the money KoKo Oct 2013 #4

warrant46

(2,205 posts)

1. Only in amerika

Reply to KoKo (Original post)

Mon Oct 28, 2013, 08:17 PM

Oct 2013

KoKo

(84,711 posts)

2. Yes...it's a read that kind of gets off into Bizarre........isn't it.

Reply to warrant46 (Reply #1)

Mon Oct 28, 2013, 08:28 PM

Oct 2013

The Bird Cage...etc.

You can't make this stuff up...but...it is what it is..that almost sounds unreal!

Who lives like this? Who could imagine living like this?

BlueStreak

(8,377 posts)

3. The other side of that is the underwriters of these IPOs

Reply to KoKo (Reply #2)

Mon Oct 28, 2013, 09:02 PM

Oct 2013

Last edited Mon Oct 28, 2013, 10:43 PM - Edit history (1)

The point is that they all look at it as funny money. They arbitrarily create millions of dollars worth of shares out of thin air and that is how they pay the company that "underwrites" the IPO. And by "underwrite" what we mean is that they get on the phones and pump the hell out of the shares to try to stoke the IPO action with all their clients.

The whole thing is a false economy. Everybody involved knows it, but they are all counting on "greater fools" to pay an even higher price than they pay.

Look at Facebook. Even at a $50 share price, they have a price/earnings ratio of almost 200, where something like 20-25 is really good for a growth company. Google is 29. Apple is 13.

These deals are hysterical. Completely disconnected from reality.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)

4. Yep...the reality disconnect still goes on where the HYPE brings in the money

Reply to BlueStreak (Reply #3)

Mon Oct 28, 2013, 10:39 PM

Oct 2013

and real earnings and value are manipulated to create bubbles in a few stocks because of the "potential."

So much re-regulaton needs to be done but, is still delayed. And, Wall Street just won't tolerate even a small tax on stock trading transactions by the Traders and Hedge Funds in many of these "bubble companies." Where is the Job Creation by either of them?

And, even Apple,made in China, profits are off shored so taxes are minimal. But we get "Apple Stores" in our shopping malls and a big complex out in Silicon Valley. I wonder how much Apple pays their Apple Store employees, btw. Still, one would think that Apple still has more value than Facebook and Twitter selling ads and allowing spying on their users. What do either of them "Produce?" The best thing both have done is allow people to connect and get info out fast organizing for causes and protests. But the downside is that the information is also useful to NSA. Ive wondered if some of their huge revenue doesn't come from being "contractors" in a sense for NSA. I can't believe they can bring in so much money from people clicking on and watching ads on their Mobile Phones .

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