UhOh! from the 1%: From Chance Encounter, Path to Twitter Riches! [View all]

(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