The company is taking advantage of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012, which allows initial communication between it and the SEC to remain confidential. It will only have to reveal full details 21 days before it embarks on an investor roadshow.
Because of the JOBS Act, little is yet known - those who claim to be 'in the know' do so anonymously. One of the few things we can know, however, is that Twitter's current revenue is below $1 billion since that is the cut-off point for JOBS.
Expectation that Twitter would go public has been rising with the success of its mobile platform, the rising success of its mobile advertising, and the acquisition of MoPub, a mobile ad business, earlier this week. At the time, Twitter said it plans "to use MoPub’s technology to build real-time bidding into the Twitter ads platform so our advertisers can more easily automate and scale their buys. We’ll maintain the same high quality standards that define our platform today. Our approach is to show an ad when we think it will be useful or interesting to a user, and that isn't changing."
Bloomberg reports, "Twitter will increase ad revenue 63 percent to $950 million in 2014 from $582.8 million this year, according to an EMarketer Inc. estimate. That’s up from just $139.5 million in 2011, according to the research firm. Advertising tied to wireless devices should make up more than half of revenue this year, EMarketer said."
Twitter, reported Reuters, which has been valued by private investors at more than $10 billion, should break even this year. It is on track for 40 percent annual growth at a $1 billion annual revenue run rate, Max Wolff of Greencrest Capital estimated.
"It's completely conquered mobile. It has an enormous social network. It's becoming a key utility as a second screen to TV and it's literally the first draft of history," Wolff said.
It is expected that Goldman Sachs will be the lead underwriter for a firm valued by private investors at more than $10 billion. "Technology bankers at major banks from JPMorgan and Credit Suisse Group AG to Morgan Stanley are still vying for roles in the IPO. Several are in informal conversations with the microblogging network's management, said two sources familiar with the matter who declined to be named because it is not public."
Mark Zuckerberg, whose own Facebook IPO was famously botched last year, advised Twitter to keep calm and carry on. "I'm the person you would want to ask last how to make a smooth IPO," he joked. "As long as Twitter ... they focus on what they're doing, I think it's wonderful." Facebook's shares tumbled after the IPO; but have slowly rallied ever since. They currently stand at around $45, which is the highest they have ever been.