Twitter is not for Sale

“Router report”

Stone told reporters he did not want to sell the company but would explore alternatives to an initial public offering.

“The point is, we want to build our own company that will last for a long time. If an IPO’s the way to do that, then sure. We don’t have it checked off on the calendar yet,” he said on the sidelines of an entrepreneurship workshop.

“We are definitely not interested in selling the company,” he said. “If an IPO’s the only thing, then sure. But if there is some other way then that would be great too. Maybe some other new way will emerge.” he said at the Oxford University event.

Stone declined to give detail of how Twitter would introduce advertising next year on its site to its users, but hinted again it would be different from traditional forms of internet advertising, which include display ads and sponsored search.

“Everyone’s going to love it. It’s going to be amazing,” he said when asked about the dangers of its tens of millions of visitors taking exception to the move.

Twitter, which lets people send, or tweet, 140-character text messages to groups of “followers,” is one of the world’s fastest-growing social internet companies.

Worldwide visitors to its site hit 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold from a year earlier, according to tracker comScore.