The stock opened at $45.10 a share on its first day of trading, 73% above its initial offering price. The stock is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TWTR. It’s the most highly anticipated initial public stock offering since Facebook debuted last year.
Twitter’s public S-1 filing revealed details on tweet distribution and plans for growing ad revenue through Twitter Amplify and real-time TV ad targeting. These plans and details show how Twitter could take $1 billion dollars in ad revenue from YouTube.
U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications has in recent weeks held discussions with banks about an initial public offering, according to three people familiar with the matter, as strong stock markets encourage private equity owners to seek exits for their portfolio companies. New York-based Univision was taken private by a group of buyout firms including Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, TPG Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners for $12.3 billion in March 2007.
The company used a tweet to intrigue its more than 200 million users and a flock of potential investors with its long-awaited plans to pursue an initial public offering of stock. 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.
Exclusives
Legendary film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is exploring a joint venture with another studio in addition to a possible initial public stock offering, according to sources. MGM filed a draft registration statement on Tuesday for an IPO, just 18 months after emerging from bankruptcy protection.
Facebook’s stock is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market today, the day after the world’s definitive online social network raised $16 billion in an initial public offering that valued the company at $104 billion. That’s more than Amazon.com and other well-known companies such as Kraft, Walt Disney and McDonald’s.
Hulu LLC’s owners may reconsider an initial public offering of the online video-streaming website after deciding to cancel an auction. A share sale would let Hulu, owned by News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Providence Equity Partners, raise capital to add content and help retain senior management, said Laura Martin, a Needham & Co. analyst in Pasadena, Calif.
