Twitter’s Wall Street motto should be: Greed is NOT good.
The super-hot tech firm, which announced Thursday it would finally go public, will price its shares conservatively, willing to leave some money on the table if it means a first-day pop, insiders told The Post.
After revealing that it was going public and naming Goldman Sachs as lead banker, the next question on everyone’s mind at what price?
Twitter was valued at $10 billion based on the last investment in the Dick Costolo-led company. The social-media giant wants to tempt Wall Street with a modest stock price that has room to run once it goes public, insiders familiar with the strategy said.
The overwhelming lesson from Facebook, which went public in May 2012 at a near $100 billion valuation, is that pricing high can backfire.
“There was a reconsideration of that strategy post-Facebook,” one Twitter venture capital insider said. “You can’t squeeze public banks so aggressively that the stock doesn’t have headroom.”
On private markets, the San Francisco-based company’s shares are worth about $20; the price when it goes public, of course, will depend on demand.
There were reports Thursday that Twitter has seen recent interest in its shares from hedge funds that would value the company at almost $15 billion.
Twitter did not have to disclose its financial data because it chose a confidential filing under the new JOBS Act, which allows firms with less than $1 billion in revenue to keep its books secret.
Twitter’s relatively small revenue — expected to reach $585 million this year — also accounts for its seeking a modest valuation.
Instead of wowing investors with how much money the 7-year-old company makes, Twitter will play up its media influence and its 200-plus million users.
“There’s a broad underestimation of Twitter,” one insider said, adding that even its ad business gets short-changed sometimes.
“People will be surprised at how well the advertising business is doing,” the source said.
The company will tout its “usage and engagement” numbers to woo investors, this source said. Twitter has aggressively pushed into all entertainment and media circles, and promotes its platform as the go-to place for online conversation.
Twitter also has a growing mobile ad business, which Facebook did not have when it went public. Already more than 50 percent of Twitter’s money comes from mobile.
Twitter also is expected to go public by offering a smaller percentage of the company than Facebook did, which helps boost demand.
Facebook increased the amount of shares it would sell at the last minute, a move that irked investors and one Twitter does not want to repeat, sources said.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even had encouraging words for his rival in an interview this week.
If Twitter “focuses on what they’re doing, I think it’s wonderful, it’s great,” Zuckerberg said, referring to jumping into the IPO waters.