The San Francisco social network also Tuesday said it plans to list
its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, NYX -0.61% a strong
endorsement of the Big Board's effort to be a trading hub for technology
companies.The filing advances Twitter toward an initial public offering
that could take place in November. The roadshow for the IPO could begin
as soon as Oct. 25, according to people close to the discussions,
although it isn't clear if it will.For the third quarter, Twitter said
its net loss widened to $64.6 million, from $21.double wall stainless steel thermos bottle6
million, in the same period a year earlier. The company booked big
increases in expenses for research and development, and sales and
marketing.Quarterly revenue more than doubled, to $168.6 million, from
$82.3 million a year ago. That was roughly the same growth rate as in
the second quarter.Helping to drive revenue was advertising on mobile
devices, as users increasingly access Twitter on their smartphones.
The
company said more than 70% of advertising revenue came from mobile
devices in the third quarter, compared with more than 65% in the second
quarter.To put Twitter's ad business in perspective: Users clicked on or
retweeted 15 times as many ads in the third quarter as in the first
quarter of 2012. Meanwhile, the average price of each ad is down over
75%.Twitter said it averaged 232 million active users per month in the
third quarter, 6% more than in the second quarter. The growth rate
slowed, from 7% in the second quarter and 10% in the first quarter. By
comparison,Quantum Analyzer QMA201 With Chinese&English Version Facebook Inc. FB -0.02% has more than 1.2 billion monthly users.Lanyard StrapThe
filing also revealed new details about Twitter's biggest shareholders.
Private-equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management LLC holds the biggest
stake with 17.9%, followed by J.P. Morgan JPM -0.76% with 10.3%. Other
major holders include Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital Partners, Union
Square Ventures and DST Global. Other than J.P. Morgan, those firms were
listed in Twitter's initial filing, but their stakes weren't
specified.
Twitter's choice of the NYSE was a setback for Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., NDAQ -0.double wall stainless steel thermos vacuum flask60%
whose Nasdaq Stock Market has historically been the home for many
technology shares. Nasdaq last year oversaw Facebook's glitch-filled
IPO.Twitter executives have sought to avoid some of the pitfalls that
befell Facebook, people close to the company have said."This is a 180
[degree turn] from Facebook," said Patrick Healy, chief executive of
Issuer Advisory Group LLC, which advises companies on stock-exchange
issues. "It's Twitter's way of saying, 'don't paint me with the same
brush.'"Landing Twitter burnishes the NYSE's claim as a home for
Internet and social media companies. The exchange is a unit of NYSE
Euronext, which is in the process of merging with Atlanta-based
IntercontinentalExchange Inc. Over the last two years, NYSE also landed
high-profile tech firms LinkedIn Corp. LNKD +3.04% , Yelp Inc. YELP
-0.75% and Pandora Media Inc., P +0.72% while Nasdaq won Zillow Inc., Z
-0.10% Groupon Inc. GRPN +1.54% and Zynga Inc."All of us at Nasdaq wish
Twitter well as they pursue their initial public offering," a Nasdaq
spokesman said."This is a decisive win for the NYSE, and a continuation
of our momentum in the technology sector. We look forward to joining
with Twitter on this landmark IPO,ntn bearing" said Scott Cutler, NYSE's head of listings.
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