Steve Ballmer Owns 4% Stake In Twitter: Reports

(RTTNews) - Steve Ballmer, the former Chief Executive of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Friday said he currently owns about 4 percent stake in Twitter Inc., which now makes him a major stakeholder in the social-media company.

Ballmer, who now owns the basketball team the Los Angeles Clippers, in tweet admitted that he was glad he bought 4 percent stake in Twitter in past few months. He also commended Twitter's new CEO Jack Dorsey.

"Good job @twitter,@twittermoments innovation, @jack Ceo, leaner, more focused. Glad I bought 4% past few months. Like @alwaleedbinT move too," reads a tweet from twitter handle @Steven_Ballmer, which has not been verified as Ballmer's.

However, Bloomberg has backed the tweet saying Ballmer said by e-mail that the tweet was legitimate.

Early this month, Twitter appointed co-founder and one of the largest shareholders Jack Dorsey as the permanent CEO after he had been serving as the interim CEO since the exit of Dick Costolo in July.

According to reports, Ballmer is now the third largest individual stake holder in Twitter after co-founder Ev Williams, who holds 6.9 percent stake, and Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, who owns over 5 percent. Dorsey holds about 3 percent interest in Twitter.

Fidelity Management with a 4.3 percent stake in Twitter is the largest institutional investor.