Twitter Reveals IPO Filing Via Tweet, Naturally

Twitter has filed for its IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Unlike Facebook it’s not revealing its finances until it absolutely has to.

Twitter’s revenue is less than $1 billion, which means it has taken advantage of its ability to file a confidential IPO. It doesn’t have to release financial details until just before it starts marketing the IPO to the big wigs on Wall Street. Which is just one way it appears to have learned from Facebook’s IPO.

It’s been 18 months since Facebook launched publicly, but it has struggled with its share prices because of the markets uncertainty about its ability to make money. Share prices haven’t yet bounced back to the price they were launched at.

Twitter revealed it had filed for a public listing using, what else, a tweet.

Twitter’s ability to raise ad revenue – or any other kind of revenue for that matter – is still largely theoretical, though. Earlier this year, digital media market researcher eMarketer estimated that Twitter’s ad inventory and reach would result in $950 million in earnings in 2014, but the truth is that nobody except Twitter really knows. Twitter’s hugely popular, but Facebook shows that popularity is no guarantee that you’ll make money.

On the other hand, many investors will feel cautious, so the initial share price should be more conservative and that may well work in Twitter’s favour.

But we’d suggest you don’t plan on shifting your Super fund just yet.


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