Twitter IPO makes 1600 employees millionaires

Twitter IPO makes millionaires out of 1,600 employees

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Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

With its IPO debut, Twitter created 1,600 new millionaires and made its co-founders billionaires.

Sarah Drake, Contributor

Twitter’s initial public offering last week didn’t only raise $1.82 billion and elevate its co-founders to billionaire status, it made 1,600 of its rank-and-file employees millionaires (on paper).
The number of those entering the seven-figure club spawned from Twitter’s IPO, and is based on the number of shares held by each person one day after the IPO, when shares closed at just under $45, according to figures calculated by market research analyst PrivCo.
Below are some other fun statistics PrivCo worked out:

• The IPO created a $2.2 billion tax bill for the newly-minted millionaires
• The total Twitter IPO California State Tax Windfall is $479 million
• The total Twitter IPO IRS Tax Windfall is $1.72 billion

Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, co-founders of the San Francisco company, joined the billionaire club last week thanks to the IPO. Williams’ stake is worth about $2.6 billion based on the $44.90 per share value, while Dorsey’s stake is $1.1 billion at the $46 per share value.
Of course, that goes with the caveat that most of these 1,600 people haven't actually seen any of that money yet, and there's no guarantee their millions won't be mere hundreds of thousands by the time they get their grubby mitts on it.
People who received Twitter stock pre-IPO are committed to a 180 day lockup period, which means they won't be able to sell any of it until May, and there are two earnings calls in between now and then. Depending on how the market likes what Twitter says in those calls, the number of millionaires created from the IPO could be substantially lower (or substantially higher) than 1,600.
Company: TWTR

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