While Facebook prepares to go public, Silicon Valley's other buzzy social startup, Twitter, is doing everything in its power to stay private. In pursing that goal, it has slapped its shareholders with an unusual restriction: No one who holds stock can sell more than 20% of their shares.
The rule -- which has been in place for more than a year, according to e-mails obtained by CNNMoney, but is being reported here for the first time -- has caused dissent in Twitter's ranks.
It directly led to the departure of Twitter's senior technical engineer, Evan Weaver, who resigned in August. In an e-mail that went to all Twitter employees, Weaver said he quit over "policy disagreements" with the company.
The policy at issue was Twitter's 20% stock sale restriction, according to several people with knowledge of the discussions. Weaver, who is currently working on his own startup, declined to comment on the matter.
Weaver's missive prompted a quick response from CEO Dick Costolo, who sent out his own all-staff e-mail later that day laying out Twitter's reasons for imposing the limit.... Source/Origin >> Read More
