Twitter said to get more than enough demand to sell IPO shares

Twitter Inc. has attracted more than enough demand to sell all of the shares in its initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Banks managing Twitter’s market debut were getting sufficient interest from investors for the IPO to be oversubscribed even before they started taking orders, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The microblogging site is offering 70 million shares for $17 to $20 each, according to regulatory filings.

Twitter, which is scheduled to price the shares Nov. 6 and start trading the next day, could increase the amount it is offering or the price before going public, depending on demand. Chief Executive Officer Dick Costolo has been visiting major U.S. cities to meet investors to drum up interest for the stock.

“They originally priced the shares low enough to pique interest like this,” said Santosh Rao, an analyst at Greencrest Capital Management LLC in New York. “I think they’ll likely raise the price at least once. We’ve seen this before with Facebook -- everyone wants a piece of these hot technology companies.”

Gabriel Stricker, a spokesman for Twitter, declined to comment.

San Francisco-based Twitter is seeking as much as $1.4 billion in its offering, compared with the $16 billion Facebook Inc. raised in its record sale for an Internet company in May 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Final Pricing

Twitter is attracting robust interest even though Costolo and his managers haven’t discussed plans for the company to break even, according to people with knowledge of discussions that took place at two road show meetings this week. At the top of the current price range, Twitter would be valued at $10.9 billion.

In the U.S., companies typically spend one to two weeks before going public meeting with investors face to face. Investment bankers take orders for shares during the period, which culminates in a final pricing before the shares start trading publicly.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is leading the offering, working with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co.