In the next few weeks, a 47 year-old reclusive financier would be scoring big in gains thanks to Twitter Inc's initial public offering. Founder Suhail Rizvi owned more than 15% in the microblogging company, according to three sources who were familiar with the matter.
Rizvi is the founder of New York private equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management. Although he was a known Twitter investor, the scope of his involvement with Twitter had not been reported until the IPO announcement.
In IPO registration documents of Twitter that were made public Thursday, Rizvi's company was listed as one of the company's institutional investors with a 5% ownership stake. Sources who were familiar with Rizvi's activities said Rizvi played a significant role in Twitter, playing a matchmaker between the company and financiers all over the world.
Rizvi initially was focused on making deals in Hollywood. He had a hand in making Playboy Enterprises a private company. Former Google executive and Twitter investor Chris Sacca reportedly ushered Rizvi to the technology scene in 2011. When asked for comment, Rizvi refused to provide one.
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