Update (5:06 p.m.): Twitter updated its IPO filing to reveal that it intends to price its shares between $17 and $20. That would value the company at $9.2 billion to $11.1 billion, according to research firm PrivCo, which is lower than had been expected. Twitter could still set the final IPO price higher than the current range if investor demand is strong.
Original (2:08 p.m.): Twitter’s initial public offering hits the road tomorrow with a series of meetings in New York, according to a person familiar with the plan. That will mark the official beginning of Twitter’s “road show,” in which it pitches the IPO to large investors.
The company is expected to set a price range for its shares today or tomorrow, the source said, confirming a Wall Street Journal report.
About a month ago, Twitter was expected to price its IPO between $28 and $30 a share, which would value the company at $15 billion to $16 billion. But the value may have risen since then, depending on investor sentiment. A final price for the shares is likely to be set the week of Nov. 3, according to the source.
The road show is a time-honored tradition of IPOs and one of the last steps before a company begins trading on the public markets. Typically, the CEO—in Twitter’s case, Dick Costolo—and a few other executives are joined by representatives from the company’s underwriting banks. They make presentations, based on information in the IPO filing, to hedge funds, mutual funds, private equity firms, and other institutional investors.
Twitter’s road show will be shorter than usual, however, because it is trying to reduce the inevitable spectacle around its offering. The company has also already been talking to some potential investors to gauge their interest, thanks to new, loosened regulations that make those conversations legal.
Twitter’s schedule for its road show was previously reported by CNBC. Here are the major stops along the way:
- Oct. 25: Meetings in New York at the offices of Twitter’s major underwriters, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan.
- Oct. 28–29: Twitter heads south to Baltimore and other locations in the Mid-Atlantic for meetings with large investors in the area.
- Oct. 30: Back to New York.
- Oct. 31: Halloween will be spent in Boston.
- Nov. 1: Twitter heads to Chicago.
- Nov. 4: Meetings in the company’s hometown of San Francisco.
- Nov. 5: The road show moves to Los Angeles.
- Nov. 6: Back to Chicago.
Note: Goldman’s building, pictured above, was famously the only one in downtown Manhattan to keep the lights on during last year’s blackout in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.