Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer Says He Owns 4 Percent Of Twitter
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Twitter's stock prices jumped Friday morning after former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced he owns four percent of the company.
That makes him a bigger shareholder than Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who owns approximately three percent of the company's shares, according to Bloomberg News.
Ballmer, who served as Microsoft's CEO for more than a decade and currently own the Los Angeles Clippers, confirmed the news via Twitter and reportedly in an email to Bloomberg News.
What seems odd is that Ballmer tweeted it from an unverified account claiming to be Ballmer. Approximately 3,400 people were following the account as of Friday morning - unusual for someone of Ballmer's stature.
He retweeted about his Twitter investment, which Bloomberg estimates cost an estimated $800 million, from a verified account that has nearly 9,000 followers. Still a low follower count than you'd expect from a tech luminary. Also, what's going on with the pixelated cover photo?
Maybe someone pointed this out to him because the new @Steven_Ballmer account appears more polished.
The revelation caused Twitter's stock prices to jump Friday morning. Bloomberg reports shares rose 3.6 percent to $30.78 at 1:56 p.m. in New York. Up until then, the stock had dipped 17 percent this year.
