The Week by the Numbers: October 20-26, 2013
By Matt Phifer
$17-20 – The Initial Public Offering of Shares of Twitter
Twitter announced that it would sell about 70 million shares of the company between $17 and $20 when it IPO’d. This would raise up to $1.6 billion and value the company at $11 billion. Twitter’s modest IPO price was chosen to avoid what happened to Facebook during its IPO in May 2012 when the company’s shares fell below their offering price.
35 – World Leaders’ Calls were Monitored by the NSA
Previously classified documents released by Edward Snowden show that the NSA was monitoring the calls of 35 world leaders. According to memos, the NSA encouraged workers in agencies such as the State Department and the Defense Department to “hand over their rolodexes.” The identities of the 35 leaders are not known, but the revelation comes not long after German chancellor Angela Merkel accused the United States of tapping her cell phone.
58 – Percentage of Americans Who Support Marijuana Legalization
On October 22nd, Gallup revealed that according to its polling, 58 percent of Americans support marijuana legalization. This is the first time in the poll’s history that a majority of Americans favored marijuana legalization. That is an eight percentage point jump from just two years ago and a drastic increase from the results of Gallup’s initial poll on the issue in 1969, when only 12 percent of those questioned favored legalization. In the past year, Washington and Colorado became the first two states to legalize marijuana.
148,000 – Jobs Created in September
The Labor Department’s delayed September jobs report showed that the U.S. economy added 148,000 jobs in September. The unemployment rate dropped to 7.2 percent.
The Week by the Numbers: September 8-14, 2013
By Matt Phifer
12 – Years Since the September 11th Attacks
The 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was marked with memorials across the country. The names of victims were read at the site of the World Trade Center while President Obama spoke at the Pentagon. On September 10th, workers broke ground on the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
17 – Grand Slam Singles Titles Won by Serena Williams
On September 8th, Serena Williams won the U.S. Open for the fifth time, marking her 17th Grand Slam singles title. She beat Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 6-1 to secure the title. Williams is now tied with Roger Federer on the all-time Grand Slam singles title list.
$9 Billion + – Estimated Valuation of Twitter, while has filed to IPO
On Thursday, Twitter announced that it had filed paperwork to IPO. Twitter filed confidentially, which is legal for U.S. companies defined as “emerging growth companies” that meet certain criteria, including having less than $1 billion in revenue. People familiar with employees’ private sale of Twitter stock to BlackRock Inc. have estimated the company’s value at more than $9 billion.
11.7 Billion Miles – Distance Voyager 1 is from the Earth
On Thursday, NASA announced that the Voyager 1 space probe had become the first manmade object to leave the solar system. Voyager 1, which was launched in 1977, was intended as a four-year mission to Jupiter, but 36 years and 11.7 billion miles later, the little probe with one-240,000th the memory of a low-end iPhone keeps moving. After months of analyzing the plasma around the probe, NASA decided that Voyager 1 left the solar system and entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012. Voyager 1 is expected to keep sending back data until 2025.