Twitter is considered to be the most anticipated Internet company IPO after Facebook. Recently, Twitter recruited an analyst responsible for pre-IPO stock allocation again, and industry insiders pointed out that Twitter may file a prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at any time now.
Media reports indicate that recently, Facebook has regained popularity on Wall Street, with its stock price rising back above the offering price. It appears that Twitter is preparing to seize this favorable opportunity to go public quickly.
American investment banking circles expect that Twitter's IPO could be completed by early 2014. According to the schedule, Twitter should soon submit the prospectus documents. John-Fitzgibbon, the founder of the U.S.-based IPO professional website IPOScoop.com, told USA Today: "Twitter may file the prospectus at any time."
Although management has consistently denied having any plans for an IPO, several recent moves by Twitter have already indicated that the company is preparing for an IPO. Recently, Twitter posted a job advertisement on the white-collar social networking site LinkedIn, recruiting a filer responsible for submitting financial reports and regulatory documents to the SEC.
After this matter was exposed by the media, Twitter quickly removed the job posting.
However, Twitter has recently recruited another position related to IPO preparation — a stock management analyst. A female candidate successfully applied, and her LinkedIn profile shows that she participated in the IPO preparation of social gaming company Zynga, especially completing stock allocation work before the final deadline of the IPO.
This recruitment indicates that before filing the prospectus, Twitter is currently consolidating its restricted stocks. When discussing this recruitment, Jim-Prosser, a spokesperson for Twitter, stated that many privately held companies with large numbers of employees also have teams managing stock or options. Twitter has had someone responsible for this over the past few years.
Michael-Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in the U.S., predicted that Twitter's market valuation is $10 billion, and its revenue this year will exceed $300 million. "They haven't filed the prospectus yet, so no one has seen the financial statements, but once they do, we will learn more about Twitter," he said.
Prior to this, multiple executives at Twitter denied that the company would go public. CEO Dick-Costolo and co-founder Jack Dorsey both expressed that they hadn't considered going public.
The U.S. IPO market is showing signs of improvement. According to statistics from Renaissance Capital, since the beginning of the year, 125 companies have gone public, a 33% increase compared to the same period last year. The main reason for the improvement in IPOs is the warming of the U.S. capital market, with many stock prices reaching record highs.
Facebook's stock price recovery has also boosted market sentiment. After its IPO in May 2012, Facebook's performance was lackluster, affecting the enthusiasm of many Internet companies to go public. At the first shareholders' meeting earlier this year, Facebook shareholders complained about losses incurred during the IPO transaction. At one point last year, Facebook's stock price fell below $18, even less than half of its $38 IPO price.
However, as Facebook's stock price recently ended its embarrassing situation of being below the IPO price, attitudes towards tech companies on Wall Street and among investors began to change.