Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s IPO is the hottest of the year, but people have widely diverging opinions on the stock’s value (sometimes even the same person). With the public launch coming next week, Jonnelle Marte at MarketWatch polled readers to get a sense for what the average investor might think and 49% said they are interested in buying shares, but many of them are going to sit out the IPO and wait for the price to settle before making a final decision.
Another 30% of respondents said they aren’t interested in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), and 20% hadn’t yet formed an opinion, which is practically the same as not being interested with the IPO so close. Oddly, 1% of respondents said that they already own stock as private investors, which serves as a good reminder to take internet polls with a grain of salt.
Twitter is the future of online conversation
The problem with buying Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) when it first comes to market is that it’s not clear how to value a company that is happy to lose money in order to build market share. Amazon has done this to great effect, and is one of the retail world’s powerhouses because of it. Facebook has followed a similar path with uneven results, but investors are backing the company this year. Some people think Twitter is the future of online conversation, but how much that’s actually worth if true is anyone’s guess.
And until the price settles down, no one knows what anyone else’s guess might be. Stock prices based on sentiment can jump suddenly, and even people who are bullish on Twitter as a company are wary of getting burned by the IPO. It doesn’t help that many of the investors who would naturally be interested in this type of tech stock have fresh memories of getting burned for buying Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) too early and will probably be more reticent this time around.
Twitter proves that its business model works
When asked if investors would be more interested in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) during its first month instead of its first day on the market, that 49% pushed up to 53%. For everyone else, it’s probably not so much whether you should wait a day, a month or a year; once Twitter proves that its business model works, investors will start moving in.
