Twitter opts for IPO on NYSE
16 Oct 2013
In a move that is seen as a victory for the New York Stock Exchange, Twitter Inc has opted to list on the Big Board. The move is also expected to pave the way for more internet listings.
The micro-blogging site, which announced the decision in a regulatory filing yesterday, joins Pandora Media Inc, LinkedIn Corp and Yelp Inc as internet companies that have opted to list on the NYSE since 2011.
While the Facebook Inc IPO came as boost to Nasdaq its reputation took a hit as a software malfunction delayed trading for the social network.
According to commentators competition for IPOs was critical for both exchanges, which got about a fifth of revenue from listing fees.
The Twitter offering, which would raise over $1 billion according to people familiar with the matter, would probably be one of the year's largest.
Bloomberg quoted Richard Kline, a Menlo Park, California-based partner at the Goodwin Procter law firm who focused on technology company funding, as saying in a telephone interview that companies liked to list where other, similar companies were listed.
He added, that anybody associated with the offering would get an uplift from it, and next time they met with a company's board they could say they had won Twitter.
In the filing Twitter also added, that its revenue had more than doubled to $168.6 million in the third quarter.
The company is expected to start a roadshow with bankers to promote the deal in the last week of October, according to a Bloomberg report quoting unnamed sources.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Times, quoted an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter who was not authorised to discuss it publicly, as saying the company was aiming to price the IPO on 14 November and start trading the next morning.
Significantly, the news of the most hotly-anticipated IPO since Facebook Inc comes amidst the government shutdown, now in its third week.
According to analysts, much depended on a deal in Washington over the debt ceiling and in the event it was not reached it could lead to market volatility, keeping Twitter from getting a good price for its stock.
Much of Twitter's revenue growth had came from advertising on mobile devices with it accounting for 70 per cent of Twitter's advertising revenue, up from more than 65 per cent in the June quarter.