microblogging

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has rejected the IPO rumors and widely reported notion that the popular microblogging site is in talks to sell a 10% stake to JPMorgan Chase for $450 million -- which would have jacked up the site's valuation to $4.5 billion.

That's the value a $200 million venture investment led by Kleiner Perkins this week implies. But that means Twitter would have a price-to-sales ratio of 840 compared to Facebook's 26 -- or Google's 8.7. And Twitter's growth may be stalling.

Amid rumors that Twitter is considering pursuing another round of venture funding, the microblogging site's co-founder Evan Williams said his company has "a lot of money in the bank," and that its advertising efforts are paying off better than expected.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams is stepping down from the top job at the microblogging service to direct product strategy. Chief Operating Officer Dick Costolo, a successful entrepreneur and former Googler, will assume CEO duties.

Twitter.com's revamped site offers much-needed new functionality, but such functions and more are already available on Twitter clients. Worse, the latest Twitter.com incarnation really won't make it easier for the company to seriously monetize its hugely popular service.

Taken as a whole, 2009 was a great year for Twitter. The social media site neared 58 million registered users, each revealing life details in 140 characters or less. But the big gains came in the year's first half, leading some to begin to wonder whether Twitter has reached its peak.

Recent news that Twitter may be in the black is probably hasty. After a closer look at Twitter's deals and digging into the numbers, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Twitter has turned the corner. And 2010 could be ugly, too.

Technology is a strange business because it has a lot of financial backing before it even has any way to make money. Take Twitter, for instance, which has grown to around 58 million users but doesn't seem to have a real business plan. That seems to be changing now that Twitter co-founder Biz...

According to Folio magazine, the Internet microblogging site Twitter is in consideration to be named Time Magazine's Person of the Year (yeah, I think the idea is silly too). However, the magazine's timing could be poor, as Mashable.com has pointed out that Twitter visitor numbers have plateaued...

The Twitter microblogging revolution is about to get bigger -- or at least get bigger offices. The red-hot start-up just signed a deal to sublease roughly 31,000 square feet near the Yerba Buena Gardens park in Downtown San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Business Times.