| To: richardred who wrote (109) | 10/24/2013 1:52:37 PM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | Twitter is far less mature than Facebook was when it went public. Also, it took them a long time to figure out and implement their revenue model. The timing of their offering may be driven by a concern that the IPO window may be closing. Pinterest, which has no revenue, just raised money at a $3.8 billion valuation.
Pinterest Does Another Massive Funding — $225 Million at $3.8 Billion Valuation (Confirmed)
Kara Swisher and Liz Gannes
All Things D
October 23, 2013 at 2:31 pm PT
According to several sources, Pinterest has completed another enormous funding, this time nabbing $225 million with late-stage investor Fidelity Investments in the lead.
The new infusion of cash — which comes on the heels of a very recent and massive funding in February of $200 million that valued the social scrapbooking company at $2.5 billion — pegs the latest valuation of Pinterest at $3.8 billion.
That’s obviously a whole lot of pins.
A Pinterest spokesman declined comment on funding efforts.
Sources said most of its current investors — including Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Valiant Capital Management — reupped in the latest round. But Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, which had already sunk $100 million into the San Francisco-based social scrapbooking site in May of 2012, was not part of this round.
Sources said the money was aimed in part at goosing international efforts, which has seen strong growth.
(Update: Pinterest is now confirming the funding, investors and valuation, with a statement from co-founder and CEO Ben Silbermann: “We hope to be a service that everyone uses to inspire their future, whether that’s dinner tomorrow night, a vacation next summer, or a dream house someday. This new investment enables us to pursue that goal even more aggressively.”)
The company recently said it hired country managers — its first global employees — in France (where it launched its first localized edition in June) and England. Pinterest had also indicated interest in Japan, when it raised money from Rakuten. It also expanded to Italy.
Ambitiously, sources said Pinterest has plans to expand to up to a dozen additional countries by the end of the year.
Also on the international front, Pinterest just scored a deal (again, unpaid) to be preinstalled on Google Android phones distributed by Telefónica’s various carrier brands in Latin America and Europe.
Pinterest has seen huge growth as consumers have flocked to the free site on which they “pin” photos of their interests and share them widely. Usage has exploded since it was founded several years ago and has also become an increasingly key driver of traffic across the Web to other sites.
While comScore showed Pinterest had 24.9 million unique monthly users in September, that is only in the United States and is desktop only. As AllThingsD previously reported, in March alone, after mobile and international is added, it had close to 50 million unique monthly users worldwide.
Growth is the ticket to Pinterest’s funding, since it hasn’t had the opportunity to have slowing revenue growth or disappoint investors with monetization troubles yet, because it has yet to even try to make any money. In fact, the company started its first test of advertising, called “promoted pins” that appear in search results and category feeds, just a few weeks ago.
But that’s an unpaid trial, according to the extensive disclosure post personally penned by Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann that tried to ease users into the idea of advertisers having any place at all on the site.
Still, as with Facebook’s Instagram, advertisers are interested in finding new ways of reaching consumers in innovative ways. Pinterest, essentially, is building the ultimate personalized catalog of the digital age.
Continuing to grow mobile usage is also key for Pinterest, as it is with many other Internet companies. Sources said that, too, has grown to represent a huge part of its user base.
Pinterest had 150 employees as of September.
allthingsd.com |
| | Twitter, Inc. | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (108) | 10/24/2013 2:45:33 PM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | More details:
Twitter Said to Be Close to Unveiling Price Range for I.P.O.
By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED
DealBook
New York Times
October 24, 2013, 2:23 pm
Twitter is preparing to announce a price range for its eagerly awaited initial public offering within the next two days, a person briefed on the matter said on Thursday, as it readies a road show for investors.
Company executives and their advisers will crisscross the country presenting their case in a series of meetings as soon as Monday. A video presentation that will be available online will also go up shortly.
Twitter has also moved up the pricing of its offering by more than a week, to Nov. 6, this person said. That means that the social network would then begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol “TWTR,” the next day.
The I.P.O. is currently expected to raise between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. Though it will not be the biggest in terms of size — Plains GP Holdings, an energy company, raised $2.8 billion last week — the Twitter deal is one of the most hotly anticipated offerings since Facebook‘s market debut last year.
Though the social network valued itself at more than $12 billion in August, the company is expected to seek an even higher valuation in its offering.
News of the pricing’s timeline was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
dealbook.nytimes.com |
| | Twitter, Inc. | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| From: Glenn Petersen | 10/24/2013 4:11:20 PM | | | | | | Twitter has initially priced its shares in the range of $17 to $20 per share. They are selling 80.5 million shares (which includes the over-allotment option). These numbers will change.
If we assume that the over-allotment option is exercised, there will be 555,196,816 shares outstanding,. At $20 per share, the company would be valued at $11.1 billion.
The amendment: sec.gov |
| | Twitter, Inc. | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (113) | 10/24/2013 6:22:19 PM | | From: scion | | | | Twitter plans to raise up to $1.4bn in IPO
24 October 2013 Last updated at 16:21 ET
bbc.co.uk
Twitter says it has over 200 million active users but has yet to turn a profit
Twitter is to sell 70 million shares priced between $17 and $20 (£10 - £12) when the company makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange.
This offering represents 13% of the microblogging site.
It values Twitter at as much as $11.1 billion (£6.8bn), making it the biggest internet company to go public since Facebook.
However, despite big user figures, the company has yet to turn a profit.
Twitter currently has 200 million active users, who send more than 500 million tweets a day.
The company is expected to post $583m in revenue in 2013, according to advertising consultancy eMarketer, up from $288m in 2012.
The majority of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising, with companies paying for "promoted tweets".
Many analysts expect that it will make its market debut in mid-November after it has completed a so-called "shopping period" where it makes its pitch to potential investors.
The company has said that its stock symbol will be "TWTR".
bbc.co.uk |
| | Twitter, Inc. | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: scion who wrote (115) | 10/24/2013 6:26:30 PM | | From: scion | | | | Twitter Sets IPO Price Range, Valued at Up to $11.1 Billion
Deal Could Price in First Week of November
By Telis Demos connect
Updated Oct. 24, 2013 5:14 p.m. ET
online.wsj.com
Twitter Inc. set its price range for its initial public offering at $17 to $20 a share, in a deal that values the company at up to $11.1 billion.
The setting of a price range means Twitter can begin shopping to investors its IPO, which is slated to raise up to $1.6 billion.
Twitter is expected to set a final price for the offering on Nov. 6, people familiar with the company's thinking have said. That means the stock could begin trading on Nov. 7 on the New York Stock Exchange. NYX -0.13%
The company is seeking to sell as many as 80.5 million shares, which includes a so-called "greenshoe" allotment of 10.5 million shares that would only be released to the market if the stock does well after it begins trading. The company will sell 70 million shares initially, the filing said.
In early September, Twitter valued itself at $20.62 a share.
At an $11.1 billion valuation in an IPO, Twitter would come in far below Facebook's FB +1.05% $81.2 billion valuation at its IPO last year and lower than Groupon Inc.
GRPN -0.58% 's $12.9 billion valuation in its 2011 IPO.
The offering is expected to be one of the most anticipated of a recently rejuvenated technology IPO market, as Internet and technology companies that have grown to multi-billion-dollar valuations in private markets look to go public.
In a "roadshow" where the company pitches its shares, the San Francisco-based company could face tough questions from investors about whether its 140-character microblogging service can continue to grow its user base and eventually turn profits from the advertising it sells. Twitter has grown to more than 230 million monthly active users since the first tweet was sent in 2006, by co-founder Jack Dorsey.
The timing of the offering is indicative of the speed at which Twitter has moved since it first confidentially filed plans for its IPO in July. The filing with the range information is set to come just after the end of the 21-day period that the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, requires for IPO paperwork to be public before a pricing range.
Twitter made its filing public on Oct. 3. but before that had filed confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which the JOBS Act allows for certain companies.
The roadshow, where investors can put in requests for how much stock they want, and at what price, would last about a week or so, according to the people familiar with the plans. After that, Twitter and its bankers will set a final price, around Nov. 6, they said. The shares, which are to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, would begin trading the next day.
As currently envisioned, the roadshow would be shorter than Facebook Inc.'s, which took two weeks from the release of its price range to the final pricing. In that time Facebook raised its price range and increased the size of the deal.
Twitter could also do the same, if the company feels that demand warrants. However, Facebook's shares began tumbling shortly after its IPO. In part, the offering was affected by a glitch at the Nasdaq Stock Market. NDAQ +0.32% But some traders and investors
also said that Facebook's raised price and expanded size of the offering caused them to sell.
Twitter is aiming for an IPO price that avoids Facebook's fate, but also one that doesn't produce an enormous "pop," or first day jump, people familiar with the company's thinking have said. A big pop can be a sign that the company didn't raise as much money as it could have.
Write to Telis Demos at telis.demos@wsj.com
online.wsj.com |
| | Twitter, Inc. | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| To: SI Ron (Crazy Music Man) who wrote (101) | 10/25/2013 2:03:40 AM | | From: ~digs | | | | Hi Ron, thanks for your reply.
Along the lines of what Glenn said, I think maybe highlight the most recommended non political posts, and also new boards that are getting subjectmarks.
I would not expect a whole lot of engagement unless you put forth tremendous effort.
Let it be a place to broadcast what mgmt feels is the most interesting content on SI.. needn't be more than that.
I think twitter is huge competition for SI and the whole msg board format in general. My transition to twitter is the reason that I no longer use this site everyday.
However, I always enjoy my time here, and still return a few times per week to see what's happening.
Wish you the best,
-Dave |
| | Twitter, Inc. | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| |
