DealBook: With Sheen, Twitter Valuation Grows

Greg Gayne/Warner Brothers TelevisionCharlie Sheen attracted one million followers on Twitter in 25 hours.

The actor Charlie Sheen has posted the word “winning” more than a dozen times since starting his Twitter account on March 1.

It may seem like a peculiar mantra, given the recent spectacle of his life and his many bizarre interviews. But the man, who claims to be a warlock chock full of tiger blood, is indeed “winning” on Twitter. He attracted one million followers in 25 hours, becoming the fastest user to reach that milestone — beating out Twitter personalities Ashton Kutcher and Lady Gaga.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Sheen had 2.4 million followers.

An analyst with Wedbush Securities, Lou Kerner, argues that Mr. Sheen’s popularity also justifies a high valuation for the micro-blogging site.

In a new note, Mr. Kerner compared Mr. Sheen’s tweets to “Lazy Sunday,” a video clip from “Saturday Night Live” that went viral on YouTube in 2005, with two million hits in one week.

“ ‘Lazy Sunday’ launched YouTube into the spotlight and 10 months later, Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 Billion,” he wrote.

Mr. Sheen’s success illustrates how others, including corporations, can leverage Twitter’s platform to rapidly build an engaged audience, Mr. Kerner says.

“At this point, the floor of Twitter’s valuation should be $10 billion. If they sell, they should get a premium to that,” he said in an interview with DealBook on Wednesday.

One investor, Chris Sacca, has bought about $400 million worth of private shares of Twitter through his fund in recent months, implying a valuation of $4.2 billion to $4.5 billion. (JPMorgan Chase is a major investor in Mr. Sacca’s fund.)

That’s up from Twitter’s valuation of $3.7 billion in December, when it last sought financing.

Still, Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter, told Reuters last week that there were no plans for an initial public offering any time soon.

For Mr. Sheen, Twitter has become a highly profitable endeavor. Through Ad.ly, a marketing service that matches celebrities and brands, Mr. Sheen is selling endorsements through Twitter messages — his current going rate, according to the report, is more than $50,000 per tweet.

“It’s so embryonic, marketers love Twitter — it’s what’s happening right now and that’s so powerful,” Mr. Kerner told DealBook.

Mr. Kerner’s full report is below.

Wedbush Morgan report

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