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Is Twitter Worth $3.7 Billion?

 & Sara Yin Junior software analyst

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If you see the phrase "Stocking Stuffer" trending on Twitter, it has nothing to do with candy canes. Dick Costolo, Twitter's new CEO, used the phrase as the title of a Wednesday blog post in which he announced a new round of funding for the micro-blogging site.

Twitter secured a "significant new round of funding with investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and existing investors," Costolo wrote. He did not name an exact price and Twitter representatives did not respond to a request for comment, but the Wall Street Journal reports that Twitter secured $200 million, bringing its valuation up to $3.7 billion.

The Journal also notes that Twitter edited Costolo's original post - changing the title from "Stocking Stuffer" to "Meaningful Growth" and deleting the first line, which originally said "Growth is fun."

Part of that growth includes the addition of two new board members, Costolo wrote: Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard; and David Rosenblatt, CEO of Doubleclick.

"The experience these new directors bring to Twitter, along with this renewed investment, will help us continue to grow as a company and business," Costolo wrote.

Pew recently reported that 8 percent of all U.S. Internet users, and more women than men, are on Twitter. According to Twitter, this year it added 100 million new users, sent 25 billion tweets, and nearly tripled its staff size from 130 to 350.

However, the Journal also points out that the company has yet to turn a profit and has sold less than $50 million worth of ads this year.

So what could $200 million mean for Twitter? Hopefully fewer fail whales, for one.

ATD's Kara Swisher notes, "A big slug of cash will surely help the start-up's expansion efforts and essentially declares it is not for sale to bigger companies such as Google (quite yet, that is)." Fortune's Dan Primack thinks Twitter will get a lot more "corporate," as evidenced by Costolo's blog post switcharoo.

About Our Expert

Sara Yin

Sara Yin

Junior software analyst

Sara Yin is a junior analyst in the Software, Internet, and Networking group at PCmag.com, pouring most of her energy into app testing and security matters at Security Watch with Neil Rubenking. She lies awake at night pondering the state of mobile security (half-true). Prior to joining PCMag.com, Sara spent five years reporting for publications in New York City (Huffington Post), Hong Kong (South China Morning Post), and Singapore (Campaign Asia, Men's Health). Follow her on Twitter at @SecurityWatch and @sarapyin, or contact her the old school way: email. That's sara_yin AT pcmag.com.

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