Twitter to trade on NYSE

NEW YORK — The New York Stock Exchange has beaten its tech-heavy rival in the quest for the biggest stock debut of the year.

Twitter said yesterday (Oct 15) in a regulatory filling that it will list its shares on the NYSE when the company goes public later this year, choosing it over the traditionally tech-friendly Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

The filing also disclosed that the San Francisco company’s losses are mounting as it prepares to make its stock market debut.

The microblogging service did not say in the regulatory filing when it expects to start trading, but the debut is expected before Thanksgiving. It will use the ticker symbol “TWTR”.

The news is an upset for the Nasdaq, which has traditionally been the place for technology IPOs. The exchange was looking to redeem itself after last year’s Facebook’s IPO, which was marred by trading order failures and delays. As a result, the Securities and Exchange Commission in May fined the exchange US$10 million, the largest ever levied against an exchange.

Both exchanges had courted San Francisco-based Twitter heavily.

The NYSE has wooed a growing list of companies recently, including 10 of the 20 largest technology IPOs so far this year, according to research firm Dealogic.

Winning an IPO is always a big deal for an exchange, but a high-profile name like Twitter is an especially coveted prize. As long as Twitter’s IPO goes well, it should give the NYSE an edge in luring other IPOs, particularly in the fertile area of social media.

“We are grateful for Twitter’s confidence in our platform and look forward to partnering with them,” said NYSE spokeswoman Marissa Arnold in a statement.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment beyond the announcement.

MOUNTING LOSSES

The regulatory filing yesterday also disclosed that Twitter lost nearly US$65 million during the three months ending in September. That’s the largest quarterly setback that it has suffered during the past three years.

Twitter lost about US$22 million at the same time last year.

In a development likely to hearten prospective investors, Twitter’s revenue more than doubled from last year to nearly US$169 million.

But the company’s rising losses could dampen some of the enthusiasm for Twitter’s initial public offering. The IPO is expected to be completed next month, though the company hasn’t set a target date.

Twitter ended September with 232 million active users, up from 218 million in June. AP