Twitter isn’t baring everything about its business just yet because it’s taking advantage of federal legislation passed last year that allows companies with less than $1 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year to keep its IPO documents under seal the final few weeks before a price is set on the stock offering.
The tactic means this year’s autumn winds will also be accompanied by breathless anticipation as market analysts, reporters and Twitter rivals await the day when the company will be required to lift its financial veil so it can complete the IPO. That moment of reckoning will likely come next month or in November, though no one knows for certain because the timing also will hinge on the vetting of securities regulators.
Filing the IPO papers, though, marked a key rite of passage for a San Francisco company that began seven years ago as an experiment within another startup and grew into a cultural touchstone.
Twitter’s influence and familiarity mean its IPO is likely to generate the biggest buzz in the stock market since the May 2012 debut of Facebook, the world’s largest social network.
By keeping some details about its business private for a while longer, Twitter hopes to minimize the public hoopla and intense scrutiny that surrounded the recent IPOs of Facebook and other high-profile Internet companies such as online coupon service Groupon Inc. and Web game maker Zynga Inc.
Under the law, Twitter’s financial statements and other sensitive information contained in the IPO filing must become publicly available at least 21 days before company’s executives begin traveling around the country to meet with potential investors — a process known as a “road show.”
Those presentations will be orchestrated by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, a former stand-up comedian who will now get an opportunity to take his act to Wall Street.
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