IIRC the monster Groupon round paid out early investors--typically a sign to run away (IMHO, something I said just the other day [1]). This deal at least seems to offer to buy out employees (which, to be frank, I would take at this point) so that's better.
But still... Facebook has taken in over $2 billion in VC funding but has a valuation approaching $100 billion. Twitter has taken in $1.16 billion for an $8 billion valuation.
I personally think Twitter is at serious risk of losing relevancy (this decade's Myspace) and they've reached a point where they need to figure out a business model (although technically they've just bought themselves another 2-3 years).
Absolutely true. Novelty of tweets and the structure of the social graph (public facing/searchable) only gives it 2 years anyway before Facebook gets it 70% right, Goog has a start but no veritable base to contend from.
I've got Twitter's most successful shot at a business model physically next to me. Unfortunately, because the realities of a team moving quickly enough, in the right steps, and with enough disruption to become viable is a near impossibility, they'll probably wither (I don't see IPO and save for MS or another hungry to innovate by acquisition, I don't see another round coming).
What we'll do is build up our bootstrapped MVP, get traction and users the old fashioned way and likely eat some scraps mistakenly left on the veritable opportunity table.
Facebook has taken in over $2 billion in VC funding but has a valuation approaching $100 billion. Twitter has taken in $1.16 billion for an $8 billion valuation.
Be careful equating a implied valuation based on a late stage private financing to actual valuation. It works when when companies are worth $1 million and there are one or two classes of stock. Not so much in these cases. The public markets will have the final say, and that could be a very, very different story for both Twitter and Facebook.
But still... Facebook has taken in over $2 billion in VC funding but has a valuation approaching $100 billion. Twitter has taken in $1.16 billion for an $8 billion valuation.
I personally think Twitter is at serious risk of losing relevancy (this decade's Myspace) and they've reached a point where they need to figure out a business model (although technically they've just bought themselves another 2-3 years).
[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2829358