Earlier today, a Twitter account linked to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that he had bought a 4 percent stake in the San Francisco social communications company that he used to deliver the investment news.
Steve Ballmer Is Investing in Twitter. (This Just Gets Better and Better.)
This should be entertaining.
And it is so, according to sources who would know, making the pugnacious executive one of Twitter’s top individual investors. Others include Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, who said last week that he had more than a 5 percent stake. Other big shareholders include Dorsey and his Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, who is also on the board.
Bloomberg is also reporting that Ballmer confirmed the investment in an email.
The jaunty tweet by Ballmer, which you can read below, gives kudos to both new CEO Jack Dorsey for recent changes at Twitter and himself for his prescience in investing. The stake is worth about $800 million.
Good job @twitter,@twittermoments innovation, @jack Ceo, leaner, more focused. Glad I bought 4% past few months. Like @alwaleedbinT move too
— Steve Ballmer (@Steven_Ballmer) October 16, 2015
As Re/code has reported, there have been big changes at the company under Dorsey, who was finally confirmed as CEO recently. There is also a new executive chairman — Google exec Omid Kordestani; Twitter has rolled out a number of new products, including a very innovative Moments feature, referenced by Ballmer in his tweet; and the company is rejiggering its staff, with large layoffs included.
It’s anyone’s guess what the presence of Ballmer will mean — he’s certainly not retiring about his opinions, as those who have followed him know well. He has also been aggressively carving out a new life for himself since stepping down from Microsoft, including buying a basketball team and creating an investment fund with high-profile former political strategist and Microsoft exec Mark Penn. It’s not clear where the money for the Twitter investment is coming from, but Ballmer has a lot of it — he’s worth over $23 billion.
Now he is richer — Twitter stock has risen more than 3 percent on the news to just over $30 a share.
I have a call into Twitter for comment, but they’re all in a meeting. I’ll bet!
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
