Wall Street is ready to welcome Twitter. In fact, just over a year after the listing of Facebook, the other social network giant also makes its long-awaited landing on the Stock Exchange, on the New York Stock Exchange. The price for the IPO, after a long negotiation between the company's board and institutional investors, it was set at $26 a share, a figure higher than both the reference price indicated a couple of weeks ago (17-20 dollars) and the one, already revised upwards, indicated in recent days, between 23 and 25 dollars, thanks to the enthusiastic response of the market.
With this valuation, the offer of 70 million shares, in a few hours, is destined to raise 1,82 billion. By adding the option to purchase another 10,5 million shares, to be exercised within 30 days, the total amount it would rise to $2,1 billion. The valuation of the company thus stands at 18 billion dollars.
However, all that glitters is not gold, because if it is true that Twitter, with over 200 million users, is the most famous social network in the world right after Facebook, and also the most used by celebrities of all kinds (from the Pope to Obama, passing through Katy Perry, who leads the ranking by number of followers), it is also true that the company's accounts are in the red: Twitter has closed the 2012 with losses of 79,4 million euros on a turnover of 317 million, while in the first nine months of this year the loss rose to 134 million, while the turnover reached 422 million dollars.
What investors, as well as the company itself, are focusing on are growth prospects. Prospects on which, however, not everyone agrees: Morningstar speaks of an increase in revenues of 64% by 2015, while the estimate of Goldman Sachs (one of the banks that takes care of the placement of Twitter) stops at 32%. What is certain is that 2015 will be the turning point for the accounts of the social network, with advertising investments that will increasingly be diverted to the internet.
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