The first day of public trading for Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is almost over. The Twitter IPO has been declared a success across the board. The company’s stock jumped on release, and it has stayed up through the course of the day. Three people are likely happier than others about the offering, however. The Twitter IPO created three new billionaires.
Evan Williams, Peter Fenton and Jack Dorsey, all insiders at Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) are now each worth more than $1 billion. No insider shares were part of today’s IPO, so the newly-minted billionaires did not collect their winnings in cash just yet. According to Marketwatch, Denton is now worth close to $2.7 billion, Fenton is worth close to $1.5 billion and Dorsey is worth just over $1.1 billion.
Twitter billionaires
The three new billionaires all helped to make Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) what it is today. Williams and Dorsey co-founded the company just six years ago, and venture capitalist Fenton sits on the board and has a 6.7% stake.
The Twitter IPO valued the company at around $30 billion as the market headed toward close this afternoon. Today’s offering was worth only around $1.8 billion to the company. That valuation is a cause for concern according to some analysts, but there is little pessimism in Twitter households this afternoon.
Twitter IPO success
The Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) IPO did not suffer from the same technical glitches and pricing problems that marred the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) operation and so the day has been declared a success. The company is now veritably public, and the hard work must begin.
Twitter went public at a value of around 12.4 times estimated 2014 sales. That prices in expectations of huge growth at the company in the coming years, and makes it one of the most highly-valued tech companies on the market. Twitter doesn’t make a profit, and nobody is sure when the company’s numbers will end up in the black.
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) has a long road ahead of it, and it will take a long time for it to grow into its immense valuation. That won’t matter too much in the Dorsey, Fenton and Williams houses tonight.
