Twitter Aims to Raise $1.82 Billion

As Twitter announced on Wednesday, its IPO price has finally been set at $26, a significant hike from the initial price range of $17 to $20.

Twitter is now set to raise $1.83 billion, potentially valuing the microblogging platform at up to $18 billion. Even though Twitter’s initial public offering appears small compared to Facebook’s blockbuster IPO a year ago, it is still larger than many high-profile tech IPOs over the past few decades. When Amazon, a company now worth $163 billion, went public in May 1997, the online retailer raised no more than $54 million. Even Google's IPO, arguably the second-largest internet IPO behind Facebook’s, raised less capital than Twitter is now planning to.

The sentiment surrounding Twitter’s stock market debut is largely positive. Despite the fact that some experts haven’t been too impressed by Twitter’s recent user growth, analysts are seeing no problem for the company reaching 400 million users within the next few years. Given the circumstances, it appears unlikely for Twitter to suffer the same fate its big brother Facebook suffered last year.