Twitter’s share price jumps as co-founder Jack Dorsey buys $875,000-worth of Twitter shares
Twitter's share price has leaped this afternoon as it emerged that co-founder Jack Dorsey acquired nearly 32,000 shares in the social media giant last week.
On Friday Dorsey, who is interim chief executive and chairman, bought 31,627 shares in the company he set up, according to SEC filings. Director Peter Currie also bought several thousand shares – 9,200 in total. Dorsey now owns 21.8m shares.
NYSE-listed Twitter's share price jumped 4.2 per cent as the stock market opened, and was continuing to climb at the time of publication.
Given the recent state of Twitter's share price, the pair got them at something of a bargain – $27.6 per share – meaning Dorsey spent around $875,000 (£571,000) on his investment. Dorsey's net worth is estimated at around $2.4bn.
At its nadir, Twitter's share price had fallen around 64 per cent since a high of $74 in December 2013, and that rate of decline has been speeding up of late. Since 8 April it has lost half its value, with the company still yet to replace former chief executive Dick Costolo.
Angel investor Chris Sacca called on Twitter to name Dorsey as permanent chief executive last week.
https://twitter.com/sacca/status/629706183155150848
https://twitter.com/sacca/status/629706403456811008
https://twitter.com/sacca/status/629707028894580736
They are not the only two Twitter execs to be filling their boots: chief financial officer Anthony Noto bought nearly 7,000 on Thursday last week and board member Peter Fenton bought 7,260 shares on Friday.
Former chief executive Evan Williams disposed of 372,000 shares across the same two days.
Twitter today also revealed a multi-year partnership with the National Football League (NFL), which will start with the 2015 season this autumn. Through the new deal, Twitter users will see breaking news, analysis, custom game recaps and in-game highlights from previous games.
Twitter and NFL have been partners since 2013.
