DRAMA IN TWITTERLAND: Featuring Kleiner Perkins, John Doerr And A Dentist

"Kleiner Perkins Already Selling Its Twitter Stock" reads one headline on SAI from Friday, alleging that venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has been selling Twitter stock that they bought only a couple of months ago. "A DISASTER IN THE MAKING" says another lengthy diatribe on SAI. The allegation? That Kleiner invested in Twitter at a $3.7 billion valuation in December, then turned around and sold some of that stock for a profit just a month or two later, at a $7 billion valuation. Some people may say, so what? People invest with a profit motive. But Kleiner got into Twitter at a sweetheart deal - paying a valuation hundreds of millions of dollars less than rival firms DST and Providence were rumored to have bid. When you take an investor like Kleiner Perkins, you're doing it because of their name, and because you expect them not to just flip the stock and bring in random new shareholders. Flipping stock just isn't done by top tier venture funds. So the allegation is serious, and reputation damaging. Other startups may think twice before taking Kleiner's money when they don't know if Kleiner will stick around or just sell the stock at the first opportunity. The problem is, the accusations in the articles aren't true, say multiple sources close to Twitter's management and investors.

Ciara Rachel Hunter Heidi Montag Katharine McPhee T.A.T.u.