The social media messaging service Twitter revealed on Thursday its plan to raise $1 billion in a public offering of stock. Much like the Facebook initial public offering, or IPO, of last year, this has become the most anticipated IPO of 2013.
However, Twitter officials would like the comparison between the two to end there.
“Facebook itself made some last-minute disclosures that rattled investors. There were problems on the first day of trading. What people close to Twitter’s IPO tell me is that if nothing else, they’re trying to have the 'anti-Facebook' IPO. To do this both quickly and quietly as they can,” said Zachary Seward, senior editor for Quartz, the digital business news outlet.
Something that Seward said was helped by the new Jobs Act, which allow emerging growth companies with under a billion dollars in annual revenue to submit their IPO filing confidentially to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and get feedback and confidence before making their documents public.
In the plan, Twitter revealed that the company generated $317 million in revenue last year, and should exceed that this year. But expenses have skyrocketed as the company began increasing staff in anticipation of growth -- leading to a $79 million loss. Meanwhile, Twitter hasn’t ever made a profit.
“If you are investing in Twitter, you’re making a bet that it has a lot of growth still to go,” said Seward.
Trading under the ticker symbol of "TWTR", the IPO could be offered as soon as Thanksgiving, as companies will spend a few weeks meeting with and presenting to potential investors before announcing their public offering date.
The federal government shutdown could also affect the release as the SEC officials would slow IPO reviews if the shutdown continues.
