They don't come around that often, but when a so-called hot IPO (initial public offering) does appear on the radar screen, the competition between the exchanges to get the listing is fierce. The latest example is Twitter, which TheStreet.com's tech editor Chris Ciaccia says has chosen to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYX) instead of the Nasdaq (NDAQ).
"We saw what happened with Nasdaq and Facebook (FB), so it really makes sense that Twitter will go with the NYSE," Ciaccia says in the attached video, adding that the creator of the famed 140-character news feed service wants its debut to be as low key as possible.
Related: #TwitterIPO: Let the Frenzy Begin!
For the record, no official announcement has been made yet by Twitter or the exchanges and the NYSE would not comment on the report when we asked them about it.
If true, the choice to list on the NYSE is hardly a shock given the embarrassing technical delays that marred Facebook's first day of trading in May 2012, as well as three recent outages that took the tech-heavy exchange offline for up to three hours.
Also of note in Ciaccia's report is that Twitter will sell about ten percent of itself, or about 50 million shares, at $28-$30 a piece, which values the business at as much as $16 billion. As history would suggest, in spite of Twitter's alleged intention to avoid the hoopla, high-demand for the stock and a shortage of shares is almost certainly going to prevent that from happening. Initial valuation estimates already range from rich to obscene, and Ciaccia says the San Francisco-based start-up could already be worth as much as Boston Scientific (BSX) or Macy's (M).
Related: Twitter IPO: The Time Is Right, Says Jackson
"The company is still growing at an extraordinary rate," he says. "Twitter is grabbing eyes and could have as many as 400 million users."
Based on the timing of its S-1 filing two weeks ago, M&A experts say it would be unlikely the Twitter IPO could be done before the beginning of 2014. But whenever or wherever the IPO actually gets done, it's safe to say it will garner a lot of attention.
"Twitter has transformed the way that people get their media and their news, so anywhere that they go they're going to be a big deal."
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