Twitter seeks up to $1.61 billion in IPO

Twitter said it hopes to raise 1.6 billion dollars from the share offering, up from a previous 1 billion dollars.

Twitter announced an expected share price on Thursday of between 17 and 20 dollars for its eagerly-awaited initial public offering, which will see the microblogging company valued as high as 11.1 billion dollars.

In an official prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it hoped to raise 1.6 billion dollars from the share offering, up from a previous 1 billion dollars.

Twitter said it would offer 70 million shares for between 17 and 20 dollars each, plus an over-allotment of a further 10.5 million shares if the initial launch goes well.

The prospectus did not give a date for the launch, but

The Wall Street Journal said that trading could begin as early as November 7.

The largest shareholder according to the prospectus is the investment firm Rizvi Traverse, which holds 17.9 per cent of the company’s shares, followed by co-founder Evan Williams with a 12 per cent stake.