Twitter has confidentially submitted a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of a planned initial public offering, the company said Thursday (September 12) in a tweet.

A Twitter spokesman, who confirmed the authenticity of the tweet, declined to comment further.

Under the 2012 JOBS Act that eased securities regulations, companies may file to go public without disclosing certain financial records. But companies which choose to file confidentially must meet certain criteria, including annual revenue of less than $1 billion (USD).

When the S-1 filing is eventually made public - which has to happen three weeks before it begins marketing the IPO - will give us the first glimpse of the revenues being generated by Twitter - something only being guessed at currently.

Twitter, which has been valued by private investors at more than $10 billion, is on track to post $583 million in revenue in 2013, according to advertising consultancy eMarketer. The IPO has been one of the most highly anticipated events in the Internet sector since Facebook went public in May last year.

Twitter has been widely expected to apply for an IPO for a number of months now, with the rumours about an imminent flotation building earlier this week when CEO Dick Costolo spoke at the TechCrunch Disrupt event.

The high profile Twitter IPO will follow the flotation of Facebook which initially saw the company lose almost 50% of its market value, before rebounding to see it rise to $44 a share, well above its opening price of $38.

Presented by Adam Justice

Read more: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/twitter-files-ipo-flotation-505694