Twitter files documents for IPO under JOBS act

Twitter Inc., the microblogging social site with more than 200 million members worldwide, filed to go public, moving closer to the most highly anticipated offering since Facebook Inc.

“We’ve confidentially submitted an S1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale,” the messaging site tweeted from its official account, sending the site’s users into an immediate frenzy of speculation.

Twitter was valued close to $10 biilion in private transactions earlier this year, including an employee stock sale to fund manager BlackRock in January. Speculation in Silicon Valley has suggested Twitter might be valued as high as $15 billionn at its IPO. Twitter didnt disclosed its financials because the company filed confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups, or JOBS, Act. Under this rule, companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue can submit IPO filings without making their S-1 prospectus public until shortly before the sale.

Twitter is widely recognized as one of the major social media companies that is well positioned in the fast-growing mobile arena, since consumers increasingly access the service on their smartphones and tablets. It has also rapidly expanded revenue after introducing an advertising model in 2010, giving marketers new ways to reach its growing user base.

On the day before the IPO was announced, shares were priced on the private market between $26 and $28, giving Twitter a valuation of between $13.7 billion and $14.4 billion, according to one investor who owns Twitter stock through its Tweetdeck acquisition. The investor said it was “absolutely clear” that Twitter had a working revenue model and potential investors would be able to see a point in the future where it would become profitable.

Some investors have withdrawn from Internet offerings after Facebook, Zynga and Groupon rode a wave of hype before their IPOs, and then plunged below their offering prices when investors questioned the sustainability of their businesses, revenue and valuations. Facebook priced its IPO at 107 times trailing 12-month earnings, making it more expensive than 99% of all companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index at the time.

If Twitter fails to qualify as an emerging-growth company during the confidential review, it will have to register again and comply with the current rules for typical public companies. Other technology companies, including Workday Inc., Tableau Software Inc., and Chegg Inc., have filed under the JOBS Act without notifying the public until later.