Twitter Inc., the business that thrives on a culture of excessive sharing, is taking a more discreet route to its initial public offering, adopting a strategy that others will follow.
The microblogging service sent out a 24-word tweet yesterday announcing that it had confidentially filed to go public with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It provided no financial details or time frame.
Twitter filed under the Jumpstart our Business Startups, or JOBS, Act signed last year. The legislation lets companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue keep their most sensitive information away from the competition and the public until shortly before they promote the offering. Investors had better get used to the secrecy as a host of emerging technology companies, including Box Inc., Airbnb Inc., Square Inc. and Dropbox Inc., are likely to take the same path.
“There’s a lot of stress in preparing for an IPO,” said Jeff Crowe, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners in Palo Alto, California, and director at RetailMeNot Inc., which went public under the JOBS Act in July. “One stress you don’t want to have is tipping off the competition any sooner than you have to about what your business model is like.”
The microblogging service sent out a 24-word tweet yesterday announcing that it had confidentially filed to go public with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It provided no financial details or time frame.
Twitter filed under the Jumpstart our Business Startups, or JOBS, Act signed last year. The legislation lets companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue keep their most sensitive information away from the competition and the public until shortly before they promote the offering. Investors had better get used to the secrecy as a host of emerging technology companies, including Box Inc., Airbnb Inc., Square Inc. and Dropbox Inc., are likely to take the same path.
“There’s a lot of stress in preparing for an IPO,” said Jeff Crowe, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners in Palo Alto, California, and director at RetailMeNot Inc., which went public under the JOBS Act in July. “One stress you don’t want to have is tipping off the competition any sooner than you have to about what your business model is like.”
