Is Twitter a good investment? According to a Reuters report, JPMorgan Chase & Co may think so. The company has developed a new technology fund that is currently in talks to buy a substantial stake in Internet messaging. As a result, it has its sights set on Twitter.
A report in the Financial Times, which cited people familiar with the plans, JPMorgan’s Digital Growth fund is hoping to acquire as much as 10 percent of Twitter for $450 million. The company is valued at $4.5 billion.
In a regulatory filing on Friday, JPMorgan said that it had raised $1.22 billion for the Digital Growth fund. Reportedly, the fund eventually plans to raise a total of $1.3 billion from a maximum of 480 investors.
A third of the fund is likely to be invested in another private Internet company such as online gaming company Zynga or telephony company Skype. The final third is expected to be invested in six other companies, which could include coupon site LivingSocial or online retailer Gilt.
According to the Financial Times, JPMorgan anticipates more than $13 million in commissions from the fund.
This latest fund by JPMorgan comes on the heels of the $1.5 billion fund-raising round by Facebook, mainly from Goldman Sachs and its clients.
In other Twitter news, the NFL has been using the micro-blogging site to ruffle some feathers. Players have been offering up real-time comments on the negotiations via social media sites like Twitter.
TechZone360’s Beecher Tuttle writes, “As the first major sports organization to take part in a labor dispute during the social media era, the NFL has found itself on the wrong end of thousands of angry tweets from current players, who have bashed the league owners for their perceived greed.”
Research in Motion – the company behind the BlackBerry – has enjoyed some success on Twitter. The company reported that Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones has been downloaded more than 10 million times.
With so many users downloading the app for their Blackberrys, these individuals have been very vocal about what additional features they would like to see, such as geotagging, which allows users to identify their location with their tweets; new language support; cleaner interfaces; new notifications and more.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TechZone360 and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Tammy Wolf