Twitter might be going through a tough time, with leadership shake-ups, lay-offs and a stagnation of user growth, but that hasn’t stopped former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer throwing some of his billions at the social network.
Ballmer, who retains a huge stake in Microsoft and also owns the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, has purchased a 4 per cent share in Twitter.
In a tweet send out in the early hours of Friday morning, Ballmer congratulated Twitter for its recent moves and confirmed his recent investment in the company.
https://twitter.com/statuses/654887753893543936
Ballmer later confirmed the legitimacy of the tweet in an email to Bloomberg (via Recode)
Whether Steve will have much of an input at Twitter is unlikely, given his role as a non-executive minor shareholder, but the bombastic Ballmer has never been shy of making himself heard.
Twitter is going through a period of change, after seemingly maxing out its potential to attract significant numbers of new users.
The firm has appointed co-founder Jack Dorsey to the CEO position and launched a host of new features that could widen Twitter’s appeal.
Twitter Moments, a new tab on mobile and the web, seeks to keep users up to speed on trending news through media rich panes of content.
Meanwhile, it’s also rumoured the firm will soon ditch its hallowed 140 character limit.
What will Twitter’s newest minority shareholder have to say about that? It should be fun finding out. Twitter needs a little more of this…
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
