Twitter files for $1billion IPO - docs show rapid growth, steep losses
Twitter has filed for its long-awaited initial public offering, revealing a fast-growing company but one that lost money in each of the past three years.
Twitter generated $317 million in revenue last year, almost three times what it made in 2011, according to its IPO documents filed Thursday. Its loss last year was roughly $79 million, but that was smaller than its loss of $128 million in 2011.
The company hopes to raise $1 billion by selling its shares on the public markets, which would make it the biggest social media IPO since Facebook went public last year. The figures were revealed in Twitter's S-1 form filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Companies are required to disclose financials and other sensitive data when they go public, and the documents give the first look at how Twitter performs as a business.