[ad_1]
Twitter is now officially a public company. Your 140-character status updates are not just entertaining and addictive, but very lucrative, particularly for the handful of entrepreneurs who turned a doomed podcasting app known as Odeo into micro-blogging powerhouse Twitter just seven years ago.
Twitter, trading as TWTR on the New York Stock Exchange, opened at $26 and quickly jumped to $50 before settling in the $45 range at press time. That’s a more impressive opening than rival Facebook, which quickly dropped below its $38 opening number last year.
The ringing of the opening bell was a tribute to Twitter users, with Sir Patrick Stewart, a 9-year-old, and Boston police official doing the honors rather than co-founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone, or Jack Dorsey. “Twitter owes success to its users,” the NYSE tweeted.
Twitter, of course, is just one of many tech firms to go public, and it certainly won’t be the last. There were rumblings this week about Dorsey launching an IPO for his latest startup, mobile payment firm Square, while in September, reports emerged about the makers of Candy Crush exploring an IPO.
But many a tech titan has paved the way, from Apple and Microsoft to Amazon and eBay. Check out the slideshow for more details on their IPO journeys.
1. Apple
Raised: $100 million
Though it’s often said that Apple got its ideas for a mouse and GUI from a three-day visit to Xerox PARC and gave nothing in return, Xerox was given the right to buy $1 million(Opens in a new window) of pre-IPO Apple stock. (Image(Opens in a new window))
2. Microsoft
Raised: $61 million
The deal landed Bill Gates on the cover of Fortune next to the headline, “The Deal That Made Bill Gates, Age 30, $350 Million.” Inside, the magazine called him a “gawky, washed-out blond” who was “oddly…something of a ladies’ man.” (Image(Opens in a new window))
3. Netscape
Raised: $140 million
The IPO that launched a thousand sites, Netscape’s success was built on the fact that its popular browser was a gateway to what was called the “world wide web.” (Image(Opens in a new window))
4. Yahoo
Raised: $32.5 million
The dot-com boom was still in full swing for Yahoo’s IPO. After a number of rough years, Marissa Mayer is now trying to breathe new life into the once-dominant Internet firm. (Image(Opens in a new window))
5. Amazon
Raised: $54 million
When it went public, Amazon was just another—well, the first—online bookstore on the block. (Image(Opens in a new window))
6. eBay
Raised: $63 million
The online auction site was quite the money maker in the 90s, with some sellers able to make a living from their eBay earnings. The company isn’t quite as cool as it once was, but it survived the dot-com bust and has seen success with its PayPal subsidiary.
(Image(Opens in a new window))
7. Orbitz
Raised: $510 million
Orbitz, which had a history of turbulent finances, was widely expected to nosedive after its IPO, but it’s had a steady flight over the years. (Image(Opens in a new window))
8. Google
Raised: $1.67 billion
Google’s IPO—like Facebook’s that would follow—created two classes of shares with different voting rights, granting its founders the final word. (Image(Opens in a new window))
9. LinkedIn
Raised: $352.8 million
LinkedIn shares climbed the ladder quickly after the opening bell, getting a raise of 80 percent. (Image(Opens in a new window))
10. Pandora
Raised: $235 million
Pandora’s IPO left its doubters singing a different tune after it beat expectations in the generally poor market. (Image(Opens in a new window))
11. Groupon
Raised: $700 million
Groupon finished its first day of trading showing net gains, although the company’s price steadily dwindled throughout the day. (Image(Opens in a new window))
12. Zynga
Raised: $1 billion
People bet the farm on Zynga’s IPO, which was the largest since Google’s, but its poor trading brought the games company back down to its humble roots. (Image(Opens in a new window))
13. Facebook
Raised: $16 billion
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg (in a hoodie, naturally) and several hundred Facebook employees were on hand at the company’s California headquarters to ring the opening bell for the NASDAQ. It was the largest tech IPO on record, but didn’t exactly set the financial world on fire, thanks in part to some technical glitches.
[ad_2]
Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/news/twitter-and-13-other-trailblazing-tech-ipos
