Twitter IPO pegs valuation at $11 billion

Seeking to avoid a repeat of Facebook's much-maligned public debut, Twitter revealed more modest ambitions today, saying its initial public offering would raise up to US$1.6 billion (A$1.7 billion) and value the company at up to US$10.9 billion (A$11.3 billion).

The valuation was more conservative than the US$15 billion that some analysts had expected for the social media phenomenon.

Twitter, which has signaled for weeks that it would price its IPO conservatively to avoid the stock drop that marred Facebook's offering, said it intends to sell 70 million shares priced between US$17 and US$20.

If the company's underwriters choose to sell an additional allotment of 10.5 million shares, Twitter could raise as much as US$1.6 billion at the top of the price range, according to an amended version of its prospectus.

Twitter is expected to set the price on November 6, suggesting that the stock could begin trading as early as November 7.

The company said there will be 544,696,816 shares of its common stock outstanding after the offering.

Twitter's offering is the most high-profile internet IPO since Facebook's rocky debut in May 2012, in which the company's shares fell below their offering price in the ensuing days.

The company could choose to raise the price of the offering over the next two weeks after gauging investor interest.

In the case of Facebook, the company initially priced its shares at a minimum of US$28 before ultimately raising it to US$38 shortly before listing. Aside from raising the share price, Facebook also chose a rare path and increased the size of its float.

Twitter, which has roughly 230 million active users, has said it plans to list its stock under the "TWTR" symbol on the New York Stock Exchange.

The eight-year-old company more than doubled its third-quarter revenue to US$168.6 million, but net losses widened to US$64.6 million in the September quarter, it disclosed in a filing earlier this month.