Twitter share auction suggests $7.7 billion valuation

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone speaks at the ''World Economy and Future Forum'' hosted by broadcaster MBN in Seoul March 3, 2011.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A recent auction of Twitter shares on the secondary market suggests investors value the company at $7.7 billion, more than twice the valuation the Internet microblogging service garnered in a December funding round.

Investors have agreed to pay $34.50 a share for Twitter in the auction conducted by Sharespost, an exchange for private company shares that announced the news on Friday

Based on the 223.7 million estimated fully diluted shares of Twitter listed by Sharespost on its website, the deal would suggest a valuation of roughly $7.7 billion.

Valuations of privately-held Web companies have surged in recent months as investors scramble to buy stakes in companies that many hope could turn out to be the next Google Inc.

On Thursday, an investment firm bought 2.5 million Facebook shares in a deal valuing the No.1 social network at $65 billion, according to a media report. That valuation is 30 percent higher than the valuation Facebook announced in its last funding round in January.

The Twitter auction, which Sharespost said was oversubscribed, involved 35,000 shares of Twitter's Series B preferred stock, Sharespost said.

In December Twitter was valued at $3.7 billion in a $200 million funding round led by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; editing by Andre Grenon)