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Twitter to avoid Facebook's IPO woes by listing on the New York Stock Exchange, says report (update)

Twitter to avoid Facebook's IPO woes by listing on the New York Stock Exchange, says report (update)

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twitter stock

Twitter has chosen to list on the New York Stock Exchange as it moves ever closer to becoming a public company, The Street is reporting based on its own sources. Twitter reportedly intends to sell between 50 and 55 million shares at a price between $28 to $30 each, bringing in around $1.5 billion for the company. Such an offer would value Twitter around $15 or $16 billion — far short of Facebook's $100 billion valuation.

A big distinction from Facebook

But that distinction may be something that Twitter's looking for. Facebook's opening on the stock market was notoriously troubled, and it took over a year before the social network's stock returned to its initial price.

Twitter's choice of the New York Stock Exchange may well be the safer selection for the moment too. Nasdaq — which Facebook chose to list on — has been home to a number of high-profile technical issues over the last several months, including a three-hour shutdown last month over connectivity issues, and shortly thereafter, another, smaller failure of a related data feed. Nasdaq's troubled Facebook opening last year also led to it handing $10 million over to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a settlement, and it's been seeing more and more tech companies choose its competitor of late.

The Street notes that it usually takes around 30 to 60 days of discussions with the SEC before an IPO can happen — pegging Twitter's offering at later this year or early next year — though it also suggests that, because Twitter used a secret filing, timing could change. Either way, it shouldn't be too long until further details about Twitter's IPO plans are released.

Update: CNBC is now reporting that while Twitter may be leaning toward choosing the New York Stock Exchange, that no final decision has been made yet and that it could still select Nasdaq.