Twitter will become the latest tech giant to become a publicly traded company, with the social network confirming it have filed for an Initial Public Offering.
The micro-blog, valued at a whopping $10 billion (around £6 billion) has made a “confidential” submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US.
In response to intense speculation on Wednesday evening the company sent out a tweet confirming the long-awaited move.
It read: “We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.”
The ‘confidential’ aspect of the post can be explained by a new law in the US, which allows a company that generates less than $1bn in revenue to file for an IPO without revealing all of the details usually associated with such a plan.
Seemingly, Twitter falls into that category.
The news doesn’t mean we’ll be be able to shop for Twitter shares in the immediate future. Earlier this year, Facebook filed for an IPO in February, but didn’t float on the stock market until May.
Facebook’s floatation valued the company at $104m, which is around ten times recent estimates of Twitter’s worth.
However, although it has recovered significantly recently, Facebook’s IPO didn’t go to swimmingly. Can Twitter enjoy more success?
Let us know your thoughts in 140 characters or less in the comments section below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
