Twitter shares have been priced at $26 each ahead of its debut at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today.
The microblogging site, which announced the $23-$25 range on Monday, will be valued at $18bn (£11bn) thanks to the latest $26 price tag and will mark the biggest market debut for a technology company after Facebook’s May 2012 IPO.
According to person with the knowledge of the matter, Twitter has managed to sell 70 million shares each priced at $26 thereby raising a whopping $1.82 billion.
Twitter hasn’t managed to profit from its services even after 7 years of operations and according to latest reports there are 230 million registered users, one third of which are not even using the service. However, despite the grim profitability figures and not-so-over-the-top user base, Twitter has managed to create strong demand for its stocks and was able to raise the offer price twice.
Analysts and investors are excited about the potential of the service. Some analysts believe that Twitter, once it ups the Ante, will be able to project itself as an Internet utility just like Facebook, Google and Amazon.
Despite the loss, Twitter has managed to increase its sales to $168.6m in the third quarter and is looking to generate more revenue by attracting advertisers from outside the United States.
Twitter is expected to start trading today under the symbol TWTR on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
