Cash-blackhole Twitter will shower itself in gold by 2015, investors told

Twitter has never been able to secure any profit from its operation since its inception in 2006, but investors claimed today that the would-be ad platform's finances could change seriously over the course of the next two years – to the tune of $200m. According to a report from USA Today, two investors, talking on condition of …

[Anonymous Coward]

Once Twitter goes public.

They have to make more money this year than they did the year before. And that means adverts as a revenue source. Facebook is getting horrible to navigate due to the "Featured Posts". Twitter, which I use and love today, will be plastered with ads soon after stock is sold. They will have no choice and it will be crap.

Greed will ruin one of the better ideas of the 21st Century.

[Natalie Gritpants]

Re: Once Twitter goes public.

Running at a loss is a bad idea in any century.

[AlanS]

I had hoped that EBITDA had been exposed by the last dotcom crash as a useless method of valuing a company!

[Charlie Clark]

Nah, EBITDA still in use by a lot of companies who try and use it to smooth out kinks and show "underlying" performance.

The Economist reckons that even $ 17 is probably too expensive. I wouldn't mind but I know that somewhere down the line one of the companies I expect financial probity from (my bank, insurance company, pension fund, etc.) is bound to be sinking some of my savings into this IPO. :-(

[frank ly]

"... one of the companies I expect financial probity from (my bank, insurance company, pension fund, etc.) .."

Past idiocy is not a guide to future stupidity. Or is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Never ceases to amaze me

Trendy company that makes massive losses floats on stock exchange.... The usual suspects pump and dump and take their cash and someones pension fund goes belly up because they've backed the wrong horse. Reminds me a lot of Entertainment 720...

[Pen-y-gors]

Premium user?

I'm not a fan of 'social media' generally, but I'm willing to concede that they may be useful for some people, nay that some people even live their lives through them. But floods of adverts will really piss people off. If Twitter is that important to people then how much would they be willing to pay for an ad-free stream? They claim 150 million active users, so even $10 a year from half of them would raise $750million. Advertising income is currently about $500m a year, losses are running at about $250m a year, so even if they lost half their advertising income by offering 'premium' they'd still be $250m a year in the black, all without having to go public.

I'd have thought it was worth a try, but then the owners wouldn't get a mega-payout.

[Anonymous Coward]

Cash-blackhole Twitter will shower itself in gold by 2015, investors told.

I just hope that it is a shower of Gold and not A Golden Shower.