Twitter took another step toward its much-anticipated initial public offering, unsealing financial documents that show it hopes to raise as much as $1 billion.
The release of the documents puts the company, which chose “TWTR” as its stock symbol, on track to start trading sometime before Thanksgiving.
San Francisco-based Twitter tweeted last month that it had filed confidential papers to kick off the initial public offering process. On Thursday, it unsealed the papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The micro-blogging service — which became a global phenomenon based on brief 140-character messages — is estimated to be worth as much as $15 billion.
“Twitter is a global platform for public self-expression and conversation in real time,” the company wrote in its letter to prospective investors.
“By developing a fundamentally new way for people to create, distribute and discover content, we have democratized content creation and distribution, enabling any voice to echo around the world instantly and unfiltered.”
Instead of relying on one top executive to write its public letter, it was simply signed @twitter.
In contrast, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Facebook chieftain Mark Zuckerberg, were the faces of their IPOs and wrote mission letters attached to the first public filings.
Twitter also revealed a much different management structure than those dictatorial technology firms. Instead of one top founder-shareholder such as Facebook’s Zuckerberg, Twitter’s co-founders don’t even control 50 percent of the shares.
Co-founders Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams own a combined 17 percent of the firm, while CEO Dick Costolo owns less than 2 percent. The ownership stake of co-founder Biz Stone isn’t detailed in the filing.
Twitter has a staggered board, which makes it much harder for outside investors to exert pressure, because not all seats are up for re-election every year.
The company generated revenue of $253.64 million in first six months of 2013, compared to $122.36 million in the year-ago period. Losses grew as well, from $50 million in the first half of 2012 to $70 million in the first half of this year.
Twitter also emphasized its mobile-first business strategy, saying more than 65 percent of its money comes from mobile advertising.
Monthly users reached 218 million by June, a 44 percent increase from June 2012.
In the filing, Twitter highlighted such viral moments as Chesley Sullenberger’s landing a distressed jetliner on the Hudson River in January 2009, a moment that was shared in a tweeted photo.
“We aim to become an indispensable daily companion to live human experiences,” the company wrote in the investor letter.