Twitter could already be worth around US$11bn and is likely to go public in either late 2013 or early 2014, according to financial research firm Greencrest. It has also been speculated that tech giant Apple may be interested in buying Twitter.
Greencrest arrived at the valuation after probing secondary markets where shares are sold privately.
It appears Twitter is keen to avoid the disruption caused by Facebook’s troubled US$100bn IPO in May and will wait until 2014 when it can be judged on its own merits and performance.
The company was valued at an estimated US$8bn just over a year ago, when DST global invested in the company. A few months later, Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding made a US$300m strategic investment in the social networking player.
Could Apple buy Twitter?
Greencrest analyst Max Wolff said Twitter may not even make it to IPO if Apple buys the company.
“Using the secondary market for shares to mark enterprise value is a very difficult and opaque process,” Wolff said.
“It is a rumour rich and special share class soup. That said, Twitter is up since the Facebook IPO and is now valued at northward of US$11bn.
“This makes sense as growth in users and new monetisation efforts are both yielding fruit and pointing towards a good 2013 for Twitter.”
Twitter announced plans to establish its European headquarters in Dublin in 2011 and it is understood that so far some 50 positions have been filled.
