Former Microsoft CEO Bought 4% Of Twitter Stock

Steve Ballmer, ex-CEO of Microsoft bought 4% stake in Twitter last week

The social media giant has good news when it comes to its stocks. According to Bloomberg reports, ex-CEO of Microsoft’s, Steve Ballmer, has managed to attain 4% of stocks of Twitter, which is even more then the company’s own chief executive, Jack Dorsey, who has 3% of shares and another co-founder Ev Williams has 6.8% of shares.

The former CEO of Microsoft tweeted, “Good job @twitter, @twittermoments innovation, @jack Ceo, leaner, more focused. Glad I bought 4% past few months. Like @alwaleedbinT move too”, on October 16, early morning, which was a clear statement and evidence of him being happy for buying the shares. He even appreciated the recently re-appointed CEO, Jack Dorsey for making the company better and, according to him, ‘more focused’.

Mr. Ballmer appreciated the fact that the social media giant has been making remarkable attempts to keep users motivated and even get attention of new users by launching new products on the site recently. He mentioned the Project Lightning or the new Moments feature in his tweet, which is similar to Snapchat’s live stories, so that users can get more insight on what is happening around the world.

An unverified account of Mr. Ballmer tweeted about the 4% shares. Hence, the claim has not yet been verified if he actually has 4% of shares in the company. There are speculations about the account being hacked as well but a tweet by the ex-chief executive earlier this month leads to the conclusion that the account does belong to him.

The 4% of shares, which are approximately $800 million, of the company might have made a good impression on its market altogether and gave it a boost of much-needed confidence. Twitter Inc. Also made the announcement not so long ago about trimming its workforce down by 8%.

Steve Ballmer’s intentions on buying the shares are being speculated. The microblogging platform has lost in the game of keeping its users attracted and has been attempting to change that. Bloomberg reported that an analyst, Kames Cakmak, said that Microsoft’s former CEO might be interested in becoming a part of Twitter’s board of directors and since he is the owner of the LA Clipper basketball team, he thinks he can provide Twitter important sports-related insight and business by getting authentic information regarding events. According to Bloomberg, Steve Ballmer has a net worth of $21.4 billion.

Twitter stock closed at $31.15 on October 16.

Topeka Capital Upgraded Twitter Stock To Buy Followed By CEO Announcement

Twitter Inc Stock Upgraded To Buy At Topeka Capital On CEO Announcement

On Monday, Twitter Inc. announced that it was making Jack Dorsey from interim Chief Executive Officer to permanent CEO. He took charge of the position after Dick Costolo former CEO resigned earlier in June this year. The management of the company said that it was taking into consideration Global Revenue and Partnership President, Adam Bain to the Chief Operating Officer post.

After the announcement was made, Twitter stock was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Topeka Capital while reiterating a price target of $35. The bullish outlook of the firm is on the basis of the latest CEO’s capabilities to speed up the product innovation pace and attract latest talent in marketing, production and valuation.

Analysts at Topeka also positively see promotion of Adam Bain’sas Chief Operating Officer and sees him as a support to new CEO Jack Dorsey in running both Square Inc. and Twitter as CEO. They also added that however the Twitter management was planningto extend itsbusiness, the capacity to establish a robust e-commerce infrastructure is expected to take few years.

The analysts stated, “We would expect further product updates, especially Project Lightning, to spur user growth.If the company is able to achieve some success with its product updates, we believe it should be worth significantly more than the current 5.0x EV/Sales, 18.5x EV/EBITDA and 41.0x P/E on our 2016 estimates.”

Presently, the social media giant is not finding it easy to increase its monthly active user’s number and monetize them effectively. These issues have caused the stock price to go down by 22.7% this year. Increasing pressure from investors has led to ultimate dismissal of Mr. Costolo as the Chief Executive,, who also announced that he might be leaving the board too.

Chris Saaca, well known bull and investor of Twitter wrote in a blog post that there are a lot of ideas on how to bring a chance in company’s miserable state of affairs. He added that the company does not lack in vision. He also supported Mr. Dorsey for the position of CEO, reiterating his optimism in the ability to carry out and operate both Square and Twitter simultaneously.

However Jack Dorsey appears to be a capable candidate, keeping in mind his past experience plus previous spell as CEO to lead a change at the company, shareholder sentiment will eventually be attached to enhancement in user growth and his execution.

Twitter stock analysis reveals that the stock was up 1.56% to 28.05 at market close on Tuesday.