Twitter is certainly one of the most eagerly awaited initial public offerings since Facebook went public. First, the company surprised those interested in the company by stating that it would not trade on the Nasdaq like its social media competitor Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). This, for those who remember the debacle that was Facebook’s IPO, makes a tremendous amount of sense. Facebook and its underwriters still face a number of lawsuits based on the horror show that was the first hours of trading for the Mountain View, CA-based Facebook. Additionally, the Nasdaq finally settled a lawsuit for its role in the nightmare for $10 million dollars.
Twitter S-1 reveals
Today, shortly after the market closed, Twitter amended its initial public offering filing (S-1) revealing that the company had entered into a five-year revolving credit facility for $1 billion. Twitter’s filing stated that it had entered into the agreement for an unsecured credit facility earlier this month. The facility matures on October 22, 2018. So far the company has drawn no money from the facility. No other details were given, nor was there any other amendments to the most recent S-1 on file.
Despite the hype regarding Twitter’s imminent IPO, hype that has caused the NYSE to hold a “dry run” for the company’s trading to avoid the problems that Facebook experienced, the IPO will be dwarfed by Chinese company Alibaba when it goes public.
Twitter looks for billions
Twitter is looking to raise a billion dollars, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s stake in Alibaba alone will bring Marissa Mayer’s company billions upon billions of dollars.
“Alibaba is a one-time thing,” said Benjamin Joffe, an angel investor and founder of Asia-focused consultancy Plus8Star in Beijing. “How often do you list a $100 billion company?”
That’s right, $100 billion. If Alibaba continues to grow as it has, and it’s projected to, it will supplant WalMart within a couple of years as the world’s largest retailer.
So while Twitter’s amendment to its S-1 is certainly newsworthy, it’s hardly the kind of reporting that will follow Alibaba’s S-1 when it’s filed. Hell, one could spend thousands of words alone speculating where Alibaba will list, if and when the closed-lipped company does take that step.